Myosotis
by Spjonkeyz
Summary: After some strange reincarnation shenanigans, a greedy Earthling is thrown into the world of Naruto as an Uchiha and almost immediately awakens the Mangekyou Sharingan. 'I'm just as confused as you are.' [Semi-SI OC]
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer: I own nothing. This is purely for entertainment purposes, and I am making no profit off of this._

* * *

 _A nauseating palace of avarice loomed over my head, and the gilded, meaningless path under my feet felt icy as I walked, naked, through the void._

 _Then, I saw it._

 _The inhuman thing sat upon its aureate throne. Its abhorrent_ _existence_ _drew sustenance from the dwindling sanity of men in the face of ever increasing desire. Such was the lord of the almighty dollar. I was not worthy to gaze upon it._

 _I knelt before its ornate throne, and it grinned at me. Appendages of frigid insatiability shot out from the flesh of the beast, and reached out for me. They held me tenderly._

 _The world took on an ethereal, otherworldly quality, and for the first time in my life, I truly_ saw.

 _The beast reached out with more of its slender, tentacle-like limbs. They slithered around me, entrapping me in the embrace of the beast. Mouths opened all around me, kissing me. They whispered and chanted quietly, enlightening me._

" _And so, Mammon lives again."_

* * *

And that was how I came to be.

I had lived my life surrounded by piles of ill-gotten wealth. One could always earn something using means of dubious morality. Conveniently timed words, and corporate backstabs.

Money, power, prestige, I wanted it all.

Of course, with karma being legit or something, I was reborn into easily one of the most screwed up, most stressful environments. That was discounting the fact that in twelve years, I would be sentenced to a death by the cold steel of Itachi's blade.

Yeah, I was an Uchiha.

God dammit.

At least I still had a penis.

My parents looked down at me with blazing Sharingan. They wanted the memory of their baby to be emblazoned into their brains with the searing brand of the Sharingan's eidetic memorisation.

These people were little more than walking corpses. An NPC, being puppeteered by a cruel god. In twelve years' time, they would all be dead. Their bodies would probably be desecrated by the likes of Orochimaru and Danzo. Power hungry fools with little moral boundaries plucking tiny crimson orbs out of skulls.

I would only be another body to desecrate, another pair of eyes to collect.

That is, if I did nothing.

Despite karma dropping off with a death sentence, the beast of Mammon had also given me all of the tools to survive, to thrive even, in this cruel world.

Mother and Father's eyes would become embedded into my own skull come time of the massacre. It's not like they would have much use for them when they were dead.

The Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan would be mine.

Unless, of course, they didn't have Mangekyou. That would be problematic.

But I had faith. The beast had whispered to me so many things. So many secrets. Enough secrets to blackmail the universe itself.

 _BANG! FWOOSH! CRASH!_

The wall of the hospital blew off, revealing a village covered in fire.

Was this the Kyuubi attack?

Balls.

My eyes _burned_.

 _As the beast crawled into the world, my twin, my master, my will._

Mother and Father were dying.

Mega balls.

Their blood flowed a crimson river. It washed over me. I bathed in the blood, I was a child of the blood. I was a child born in the midst of fierce combat. Crimson eyes went dormant in Father's skull. He was already half dead from the initial explosion, and was now on fire. He was looking rather like a burnt marshmallow.

I giggled a little bit.

My eyes _bled_.

 _The beast crawled into my eyes, changing them to suit its needs. Malice flooded through my optical nerves, building upon them, changing them, improving them._

 _Then, I felt it._

 _The loss. I was so naked without my suit. I was so empty without my obviously fake smile. I was so alone without my pile of wealth._

 _And I was so lost without my world._

 _I had died. The world that I knew had vanished, and I was lost._

 _And so, the beast fed on my loss. The beast fed on my desire to have something, to own simply for the sake of ownership. There was nothing without possession. The world ran on the treadmill of Mammon._

Mother had various pieces of shrapnel embedded in her body. She was bleeding profusely from the various wounds in her body. Thankfully, her eyes were untouched. They could still be scavenged. She looked rather like a strange cross between a turtle and a porcupine, with the copious amount of debris that pierced her body.

My undeveloped mouth produced more babble-like giggling.

My eyes were _on fire_.

 _And finally, the beast, satisfied, crawled out of my skull, and hovered in the room in a nebulous cloud of avarice._

Mother looked at me in horror. She opened her mouth in a silent scream. She repeatedly activated and deactivated her eyes, in hopes that her infallible Sharingan were deceiving her. I considered her carefully.

Were her eyes Mangekyou? They-

 _The beast swooped down into Mother's skull and fixed her, made her more useful._

-were! Hot damn! I thought these things were supposed to be rare, right? Are they not? Actually, didn't the Uchiha have a practice of killing their closest friends to awaken the Mangekyou? Doesn't matter. How would I store them for when I was ready for the implant?

I tried to force my underdeveloped infant body to crawl up her rapidly paling flesh, a task that proved to be impossible for my underdeveloped infant body.

 _With a sweeping dive, the beast burrowed once more into my eye sockets, and propelled me forwards with the wind of the divine._

And suddenly, I was there.

 _The beast grinned as it watched through my eyes with clarity that could only be achieved with the magical eyes of Samsara._

I reached for her eyes. She was too weak to struggle. My chubby infant hands reached into her eye sockets. Her face was white with terror.

 _The beast followed through my veins and guided my hand._

Her eyes came out with a wet pop.

 _The beast, content with its work, grinned, revealing a smile full of needle-like teeth. It spoke to me, "Farewell, avatar of Mammon," its eyes focused sharply upon my figure._

 _A glaring red light span brightly in its eyes, enveloping the room in a scorching display, "Conquer this world for Mammon won't you?"_

* * *

At age forty-three seconds, I had unlocked the Mangekyou Sharingan.

I'm just as confused as you are.

The minute I woke up, I knew my Mangekyou abilities. My theory is that activation of the Mangekyou had connected pathways in my brain to give me an inherent understanding of the new abilities.

They were… lacklustre when you compared them to the other ones displayed in the Naruto universe.

With my left eye, I could do a short range teleport.

 _Fujin_

It sounds pretty awesome at first, but when I said short range, I meant _short range._ I could probably go about half a metre at the very most in any direction. Honestly, just straight up walking would be way easier than using the Fujin. It may or may not be an exploitable ability in combat, but it didn't matter either way. Shisui managed to become absolutely _broken_ using the freaking Shunshin, so I didn't see why I couldn't do the same.

With my right eye, I could make an unbreakable Genjutsu to make myself or any object invisible.

 _Dodomeki._

Unfortunately, this only covered the visual part of things. Any shinobi worth their salt would be able to find me by sound and maybe smell just as easily if I were visible.

Dodomeki ended up being useful in the hospital though, for hiding Mother's Mangekyou Sharingan from the prying eyes of the ANBU searchers. I was on the brink of unconsciousness when I used Dodomeki instinctively,

Neither of my Mangekyou abilities had any much use in open combat. I would be reasonably good in infiltration, with Dodomeki's obvious application and Fujin perhaps letting me get behind locked or sealed areas, but the moment I stepped on the battlefield would be the moment that I died. I suppose that, with the Susanoo, perhaps I would be able to stand a chance, but manifesting a Susanoo would be harsh on my reserves, especially now as an infant.

The only positive thing about my Mangekyou abilities is that neither of them used very much chakra. That fact isn't exactly relevant when you consider that I'll hardly be using either of them.

I really hope that Mother's Mangekyou have something better in them.

I also would barely be able to use the Sharingan until somewhere around Genin or Chunin. Since I skipped all tomoe stages, I was stuck using a fully matured Sharingan, which, while better than the other Sharingan, was also harder on the chakra reserves. I would be a beast in combat for all of thirty seconds. Then I'd probably fall unconscious from chakra exhaustion.

This Mangekyou bullshit seems like a lot more trouble than it's worth. Especially because my Mangekyou abilities suck.

Oh yeah, and compounded with all of that bullshit, because my parents died, I was passed on to a willing Uchiha adopter.

Guess who was willing to take in a baby with a freaking _Mangekyou_?

 _Every goddamn person in the clan._

Guess whose word had the highest sway in the Uchiha clan?

Frickin' Uchiha Fugaku.

You know, Sasuke and Itachi's _dad._

I was their _adopted brother._

You've gotta be shitting me at this point.

Hey, being Itachi's brother now, maybe I'd be able to escape death at the Uchiha massacre the same way that Sasuke did?

Hopefully?

Oh yeah, Fugaku and Mikoto, my new adoptive parents, the frickin' _Itachi and Sasuke's parents,_ decided on my name, as my parents didn't have time to, being murdered by the Kyuubi and all that.

They named me Kyouki.

Insanity.

Real funny, guys.

* * *

 _A/N: So I rewrote the chapter a bit. I'm not quite certain where I was going with the whole 'Mammon' thing, but I might incorporate it a little more throughout the story if anyone likes it. I thought that the whole premise of the 'Mangekyou baby' might make more sense if I used a sort of ROB character rather than having the baby magically awaken them on their own._

 _I also removed the interlude at the Hokage's office. I'm not sure that it made much sense, now that I've gone over it. It seems to me that the Hokage and his associates would probably have better things to talk about after the Kyuubi attack than a random baby._

 _So let me know if you liked the changes. If you do, I'll just keep it. If you don't, I still have the old copy, so I can restore it._


	2. Chapter 2

_Disclaimer: I own nothing. This is purely for entertainment purposes, and I am making no profit off of this._

* * *

For the past few years, my life has been relatively peaceful.

And by peaceful, I meant _boring as hell._

Kidding. It wasn't actually that bad. The Uchiha library was absolutely _ridiculous._ Imagine this, you've got Kakashi, a guy who supposedly copied over a thousand jutsu using his Sharingan.

Now, you've got an entire _clan_ full of Sharingans. Even if not all of them were of the same calibre as Kakashi, there were still _tons_ of Uchiha, over several generations, all of them armed with Sharingan, ready to copy jutsu.

I really don't understand why _all_ Uchiha aren't walking jutsu libraries. There are thousands of jutsu in the library that they could learn and… uh… actually, most of the _good_ stuff was locked away, in the less public part of the library. But still!

They could do this thing, where every year some of the older Uchiha would demonstrate some jutsu, and the younger ones would copy them with their Sharingan so that they could potentially use the jutsu later on. Even if they didn't use the jutsu, they still knew it, and could come up with counters.

Why the hell wasn't every Uchiha a living database?

Maybe because of people like the Yamanaka, actually. If every Uchiha knew a ridiculous number of jutsu, and the enemy got their hands on their memories, then an enemy gets potentially hundreds of new jutsu.

But even still! Why not have some regulated jutsu be fed to the younger ones? Stuff that, if it fell into enemy hands, wouldn't matter too much. That would've made the Uchiha way more powerful!

Whatever.

As the son of the clan head, I got privileges. I got servants to wait on me hand and foot, which kind of pissed me off. I can wipe my own ass, thank you very much! But the thing that really was awesome, was access to the library.

The _whole_ library.

Hoho, thousands of jutsu, collected by generations of copycat Uchiha. I got the full experience of the Uchiha library, and I used it to the fullest.

Being an Uchiha, my elemental affinity was fire. So, I mostly took scrolls out of the fire section of the library. I picked out about a dozen jutsu every morning and speed read through them using the small amount of Sharingan usage I had access to. Hand seals, strengths, weaknesses, uses, I knew them all. I couldn't actually use most of the jutsu I learned, me having child-sized chakra reserves, but one day I _would_ be a walking ninjutsu library.

Even if I did have the reserves, I _still_ couldn't perform the jutsu. When you see someone perform a jutsu live, the Sharingan breaks down exactly how all the chakra moves and is manipulated. All you have to do now is build up the necessary skill to use the jutsu, if you don't have it already. When you read from a scroll, you know the all the hand seals and junk, but there's still an element of figuring things out afterwards.

I probably could have learned more jutsu by having servants laying a bunch of them out in a row and sprinting past them with my Mangekyou active, but I _still_ felt weird using servants. I know I really shouldn't, but they were just… _uncomfortable._ After an entire lifetime of doing things yourself, it feels wrong to have someone else do it for you.

Now, I was five years old, which was old enough for Fugaku to start training me. I was taught in the Uchiha clan's specialised taijutsu style, which would make full use of the Sharingan, prioritising speed over all else.

With my already fully matured Sharingan, I could simply watch Fugaku run through the katas, build up the necessary strength and speed to use them, and execute them perfectly a few months later, after my physical attributes had gotten better.

I didn't just learn taijutsu either. Fugaku had seen fit to give me various chakra control exercises to practise. I had currently mastered leaf sticking. Fugaku hadn't given me anything else, but privately, I had basically mastered both tree walking and water walking. They were easy to do, given my currently rather small chakra reserves. The only problem being was that I couldn't practise them for too long, which, funnily enough, was due to my small chakra reserves, the reason I could do them at all.

With the Sharingan, there was no aspect of failure in my training, only progress. The children of my age had not awakened their Sharingan yet, meaning that they had to train in the traditional method. They had to not only gain strength and speed, but also perform the katas correctly. The Sharingan's copying capabilities essentially cut out half of my training time.

With the learning of taijutsu, inevitably came sparring with other children.

I pounded the children into the floor.

It was the obvious outcome, given the fact that not only was I being tutored privately by the clan head, but I had active Sharingan.

The Sharingan was, however, not an 'instant win' button. Perhaps it would be, given a few years, but as of right now, I could only keep my Sharingan on for forty three seconds.

I timed it and then rounded down for safety. Forty three seconds, from the time I activated my Sharingan, to the second I started feeling my reserves approaching empty. Forty three seconds of speed reflexes.

In combat, I had forty three second long window of time where I'd be able to use to Sharingan. I needed maximum efficiency, to use my forty three seconds to the fullest. Thankfully, I could activate and deactivate the Sharingan as I wished, meaning that I could spread my forty three seconds out.

That still doesn't give me anything good to use later on for the clusterfuck of ninja magic that is shinobi combat. I need something that'll either make people go, 'Oh damn, we're gonna die,' or an efficient jutsu to use continuously while fighting. There were numerous ways to go about getting either one of those things.

The Susanoo, for one. I haven't actually tried using it, for fear of using up too much chakra for my pathetic child body could handle. The Susanoo used up too much chakra to be good normal combat anyways. It would be for a strong single target, or if I was soloing a large army.

Another solution would perhaps come to me rather than me searching for it. Perhaps in some fight later down the road, I'd witness some badass jutsu and copy it. Of course, this would require me being in the field for a while, which meant that I would be out there fighting, without a badass jutsu.

I might be able to dig things up in the Uchiha library though. I had mostly been searching for low-level jutsu, that I'd be able to use pretty much right out of the Academy and perhaps when I was nearing Chunin rank. Still, I had a limited amount of Sharingan time, and I'm not sure scouring the library would be a good use of my Sharingan, so looking for a good jutsu.

The last solution would maybe be Mother's Mangekyou.

I'm hoping for something that I can whip out on the front lines. I need something that's repeatable and has a relatively low cost, while still being a direct attack. Something like a low-budget Amaterasu would be pretty good.

Then again, I had never heard of Mother in the original series, so I doubt her Mangekyou were very notable. They probably had some lame crap that either was only good in infiltration, or just wasn't useful at all.

Speaking of Mother's eyes, I a few months ago, I had gotten my hands on a tube of preserving solution and put them in a storage scroll. All those things were stolen with a combination of Dodomeki's invisibility and my Sharingan. The Sharingan was perfect for seeing openings where I could steal stuff, even with the limited time I had with it. And while Dodomeki couldn't fool a shinobi, it could most certainly be used to sneak past civilian vendors. Mother's eyes were kind of icky. I had waited for too long to get preserving solution. Still, nothing that a good Izanagi wouldn't fix. And the preserving solution was _legit._ With the amount of interesting kekkei genkai out there, it was a top priority thing to have a good method of preservation. With chakra and all, almost perfect preservation was relatively easy.

This kind of depresses me, the thing with the merchants. It's a perfect demonstration of what a _real_ shinobi should be like, sneaky and all that, but it's nowhere near the kind of shinobi that I _want_ to be. I want to be a ridiculous unkillable soldier on the open battlefield, not someone that does this stealth bullcrap! All of my current abilities point towards a stealth specialist, and I hate it! I need something good from your eyes, Mother.

Of course, the Shunshin could potentially be the only jutsu I need. It's a low cost jutsu that, paired with my evolved Sharingan, could potentially make me ridiculous on the battlefield. Shisui did it before. I'm sure that, with a little practise, I could do the same.

 _Thud!_

I looked at the downed Uchiha child with dispassionate eyes. My newest challenger, beaten into the ground like all the rest. He picked his battered body off the ground and we made the Seal of Reconciliation. I offered him a small smile, and gave him a thumbs up. Hopefully Itachi would see how much of a _not_ asshole I was and spare me come time of the massacre.

Brushing myself off, I walked back to my adoptive father, Fugaku. He was giving me a small smile. The smile was a proud, fatherly one. No doubt about it, he was proud of me for being able to kick all the tiny asses of the other little Uchiha children.

"Follow me, Kyouki," Fugaku spun around and marched off in the standard stiff Uchiha 'stick up your ass' walk. The Uchiha 'stick up your ass walk' wasn't as stiff or unnatural as the Hyuuga 'stick up your ass walk,' but it carried a more haughty, arrogant weight to it.

I followed Fugaku through the clan compound. The Uchiha crest adorned practically every surface in the compound. It was kind of overbearing, honestly. Big Brother's watching you! The fact that the crest always kind of reminded me of a lollipop only served to make things even more ridiculous.

Come on! I can't be the only one, right? The Uchiha crest _does_ look like a lollipop!

Fugaku lead me closer to… ah. I see where this is going. Fugaku was taking me to the lake at the edge of the Uchiha compound. I was going to do that rite of passage thingy that the Uchiha do. That 'shoot a fireball over a lake or you're not one of us' thing.

Fugaku put on a serious face, giving off an air of dignity and nobility, "Uchiha Kyouki, do you swear…"

Boring speech time! Teach me the stupid fireball already! Actually, now that I think about it, has the Grand Fireball jutsu ever hit _anyone_? That thing has a ridiculously low success rate. Probably because it was unnecessarily large and flashy. Why did they teach all aspiring Uchiha shinobi the jutsu then?

"... and uphold the honour of the Uchiha clan? You must…"

Or maybe the fireball _was_ actually effective, but since you can't kill of enemies right away in anime and manga, the fireball always misses? Perhaps the low success rate of the fireball was just to prolong fight scenes.

"... are refined. We are not common soldiers, we are _Uchiha._ Should you…"

Damn. This speech is taking _forever._ Why the hell would he take so much time going through such a wordy speech? Most five year olds wouldn't even be able to understand it anyways. Even those that did probably wouldn't pay much attention to it.

Or maybe I was just an asshole that couldn't respect authority figures.

Wait a minute, why was I learning the fireball so early? If I remember correctly, don't most Uchiha learn the fireball sometime during the Academy? The Mangekyou thing was probably pushing them to do the fireball over a lake thingy sooner.

"... so, Uchiha Kyouki, I ask of you: Will you throw your all into the way of a shinobi? Will you honour the way of our ancestors? Will you be an _Uchiha?"_

"Hai, Fugaku-dono."

"Then throw this fucking fireball over the lake, motherfucker! Whoot! Whoot! Fuck the system! Anarchy! ONE OF US! ONE OF US! I'mma go bone your mom after this! Fuck yeah!"

Okay, I might've paraphrased and exaggerated what he said a _little_ bit.

But I doubt you'd want to hear the boring-ass speech that came after the _first_ boring-ass speech. Seriously, doesn't this guy have anything better than giving inspirational speeches to five year olds to do?

Whatever, onto the cult induction! -Err… clan… rite of passage.

Let's see, I'm fully tanked up on chakra, refilled from my jutsu blitz this morning. Forty three seconds should be plenty to memorise the fireball.

Ah, he's starting now. Tiger, ram, monkey, boar, horse, tiger, and fireball!

There really aren't that many, I could've just memorised them normally. But now, with the Sharingan, I'll never forget them! Plus, the added bonus of seeing how the chakra moves and whatnot.

Forty seconds of Mangekyou time left. That should be enough chakra to power up the fireball.

Running through the hand seals, fire chakra built up in my stomach. I breathed out orange flames, which coalesced into a fireball about a metre in diameter.

I looked at the fireball that hovered in front of me.

This thing is bright as _shit._

I'll have to fix that sometime.

* * *

 _A/N:_ _Thanks guys, for not answering my question last chapter. In case you forget, it was:_

 _Question:_ _Question: How come Mangekyou users seem to have normal Sharingan, until they actually use a Mangekyou ability? Why does their three tomoe randomly shift over to a Mangekyou seal?_

 _And what I got (directly copy and pasted):_

 _Some Guy In An Ambulance:_ _Naruto is some bullshit and bullshit accessory's._

 _In Brightest Day:_ _Because why the fuck not?_

 _Thanks, guys._

 _Anyways, at least now I know I can decide for myself whatever design I want, whether a randomly shifting three tomoe, or a permanent pinwheel. Maybe I'll just be vague about describing Kyouki's eyes or avoid describing them entirely._

 _KyuubiNoPuma: I actually hadn't thought about how he'd preserve the eyes until I read your review. I think I made a mention of storing them last chapter, but I never gave much thought into how he'd actually do it. It's cool now though, got it covered in this chapter. Another thing, Dodomeki, the invisibility Mangekyou ability, wouldn't preserve the eyes. The invisibility isn't permanent either. It's just a temporary layer of unbreakable invisibility. I think I just contradicted myself. 'Temporary' and 'unbreakable.' What I mean is, the illusion is temporary, but you can't 'kai' it away._


	3. Chapter 3

_Disclaimer: I own nothing. This is purely for entertainment purposes, and I am making no profit off of this._

* * *

Aw, hell yeah!

I did a variation of the traditional Uchiha fireball. Instead of the normal fireball, I breathed out a continuous stream of fire. That's right, I'm a walking _flamethrower._

It's not actually as impressive as I make it sound. The flamethrower variation is something that can be done with very little effort. The Grand Fireball is basically just the user breathing out fire and condensing it into a ball. This variation just removes the 'condensing into a ball' part of the jutsu. It's actually something that virtually all Uchiha learn how to do.

But still! Flamethrower!

Although it used up quite a bit of chakra…

I quantified all my chakra in terms of how long I can keep my Sharingan active. I kept constant tabs on the amount of chakra in my system. Every night, right before I went to sleep, I timed the number of seconds I could keep my Mangekyou on without feeling my reserves dip into a dangerous area. I could now safely use my Sharingan for just over a minute. Sixty-three seconds, to be exact.

I had measured each jutsu that I knew carefully in terms of 'Mangekyou time.' I carefully measured out exactly how many seconds of my precious Mangekyou time that were siphoned away with each jutsu.

My findings were rather depressing. Apparently, both of my Mangekyou abilities cost less than a Grand Fireball.

It was was kind of sad how both of my Mangekyou abilities costed less than a C-Rank jutsu like the Grand Fireball. I guess it kind of put into perspective how lame they were. Maybe I'd use them someday, who knows?

…

Nah, they're pretty useless. Maybe I could use them as a distraction? There's an idea. Perhaps one day I'd figure out how to apply them in combat. Until then, they serve little purpose other than to help me steal things from merchants.

It's a big day for me. I'm going to the Academy today. Although, I'll probably be bored as hell during my Academy years, considering the fact that I already had taijutsu and ninjutsu training, and I had read the books in the library pertaining to history.

But hey, at least it gave me a chance to prove my superiority over a bunch of small children! That's bound to fun!

I wore the typical blue Uchiha high collar t-shirt, with the Uchiha 'lollipop' plastered on the back of it. Mikoto, my adoptive mother, tried to get me to wear some white cargo shorts for pants, but I flat out refused, instead opting for some standard black shinobi pants. If I put those cargo shorts on, I would basically be a Sasuke pre-Shippuden clone, sans the duck-ass hair. My hair was more straight, resembling Itachi's.

Itachi hadn't played a huge role in my life. He was almost always busy with his ANBU work or whatever, but whenever he did see me, he seemed really happy to be around me. I'm pretty sure that's a good sign. Sasuke survived before in canon, and Itachi likes me right? I'm not gonna die, yeah?

Speaking of Sasuke, he was standing there next to me, wearing the same exact outfit as seen in canon, the one that Mikoto tried to get me to wear. See, here's what I don't understand: Why would Mikoto try to dress up both of her sons in the exact same outfit? That's just _weird_.

While we're on the topic of Sasuke, he seemed very quiet. Wasn't he supposed to be pretty chill before the massacre? Perhaps it was due to him being in the shadow of not one, but two brothers, one of which wasn't even his biological brother.

Ah, thinking back to it, Fugaku didn't really pay Sasuke much mind, and instead, either spent his time training with me, or fawning over Itachi when he was home. I felt a little bit bad now. My existence in this world left a child devoid of any fatherly interaction. Although, in canon, Fukaku didn't exactly pay much attention to Sasuke either, not until Itachi grew estranged from them anyways.

Hmm, could I use Sasuke's loneliness to my advantage? I probably could.

But _would I?_

On one hand, I was manipulating a small, impressionable child, which was a little bit hard on my the little morality I had. On the other, if I played my cards right, I had an eventual demigod on my side.

"Hey Sasuke, you ready for the Academy today?"

My choice was made.

"Y-yeah…"

* * *

I looked around at the classroom I was in. I was sitting in the back corner, in the 'Protagonist Spot' near the window. Sasuke, despite only rarely having interacted with me, chose to sit in the spot next to me. Was he really that neglected? Didn't he have Itachi to chill with though?

Iruka was droning away in a math lesson. I couldn't care less about the 'one plus two' garbage that he was droning on about so I didn't really listen. It was just like canon, with the exception of me. And just like in canon, all of the clan heirs were all bunched together in this tiny ass classroom. It was probably suffocating for Iruka. To teach in a room this loaded with political tension with the clan heirs in a addition to the blonde idiot himself-

"Hey! I'm not late, am I?"

-speaking of the devil, frickin' Naruto barges into the room, twenty minutes into the lesson. Naruto proceeds to sheepishly rub his hand on the back of his neck in response Iruka's yelling, and sits down in the only empty seat in the classroom.

Which happened to be the one that was right next to the two Uchiha in the class.

Ooh, here's my chance to make _both_ Asura and Indra my friends.

Actually, this classroom is the perfect chance for me to make acquaintances with _all_ of the powerful heirs. They were bound to be powerful both politically and physically, so it would be advantageous to at least be on speaking terms with all of them. I really need to get some friends…

I didn't exactly have many friends in the clan, most of the children stayed away from me, either at the request of their parents, for fear of upsetting the son of the clan head, or by their own choice, trying to ostracise the one who beat them all in spars. In any case, I had very few friends.

Perhaps it was also due to the fact that I often practised my genjutsu at them. Cloaked in Dodomeki, I would force a genjutsu onto them, often some sort of horrific monster or creepy feeling. Sometimes, I'd even follow them, turning their rice into eyeballs, their water into blood, and even their own limbs into horrific decaying messes.

Even when I wasn't messing with them directly, I still walked around with a shadow that seemed just a _bit_ too long and had just a _few_ too many limbs. Sometimes, my form would flicker into some horrific walking corpse, only to transform back into my normal form.

I love genjutsu.

Hey, don't look at me like that! I've got a whole future's worth of shinobi combat to get through, I need to practise!

The fact that genjutsu were the only non chakra-taxing things to practise from the stuff I got from the library, and the fact that they were practically on easy-mode with the Sharingan had absolutely nothing to do with it.

Gotta build up that chakra control somehow.

So yeah. With the Uchiha clan's children, I became associated with creeping shadows, creepy stalking spectres, and horrific monsters that seemingly popped out of nowhere.

I hope I get Kurenai as a sensei.

Anyways, back to the class.

I wonder if I could genjutsu them into being my friends.

Nah. There's too much of a risk in being caught by the teachers. But I need the potential political support that I could gain with being their friends. Perhaps I could genjutsu the teachers as well? That could be an idea.

* * *

Sparring class on the first day? Hell yeah.

The teacher divided the class into two groups: those that already had training prior to the Academy, and those that were entirely new. He took the new kids to show them the katas and whatnot for the basic Academy style, and an assistant lead the rest of us off to spar.

It made sense I suppose, to divide us up by skill, but it also fostered a sense of division, that was made very clear by the rather unfriendly rivalries that sparked in the Academy. Wasn't Konoha supposed to be the 'Friendship is Magic' village? Eh, it's probably just something that I'm not seeing.

 _Ouch._ Sasuke had went to join the group of students that said that they had received no training before. I guess that he really _hadn't,_ what with me taking up all of Fugaku's time. That kind of bums me out a bit. Seeing neglect to this degree. I'll have to fix that later.

Right now though, I'm _really_ hoping that he doesn't get a chance to spar. He'll definitely lose against whoever he's pitted against, a loss that'll insure a scolding from Fugaku.

Ah, nice. I'm up first. I was partnered with Kiba for sparring. By the time the assistant teacher lined us up, and had us make the hand sign of conflict thingy, he was already itching to go, feet scraping on the ground and everything.

I, on the other hand, assumed a ready and aggressive position in the Uchiha style. I was planning on taking him out fast and hard right away. Even without the Mangekyou active, I was still able to plot out several different courses of action. It never payed to be arrogant, and it'd be the laughingstock of the Uchiha clan if the gilded 'Mangekyou Baby' lost his first sparring match.

The assistant placed his arm between us. With a downwards chop, he cried out, "Hajime."

I immediately leapt forwards. Kiba was a different sort of fighter than the other Uchiha children. With the Uchiha, I was fighting against techniques that I already knew in and out, ones that I practised myself. Kiba was a brawler. His techniques were much different from the Uchiha clan's precise and efficient movements, relying more on sweeping and heavy attacks.

He pulled his arm back telegraphing his punch. His fist snapped forwards, but I was already well out of the way. He was stronger than me, I'll give him that, but my speed, reflexes, and overall skill were higher than his.

I found gaps in his guard, weak points in his every step. His movements were predictable and left him wide open. My fists impacted against his exposed body.

All too soon, he fell to the ground, a bruised heap of failure.

 _Victory._

I stood in front of Kiba's fallen form as he slowly struggled to his feet. He glared at me. He detested my superiority in combat.

I reached my hand out for him. A peace offering.

He looked first at my hand. Then at me.

He sneered and slapped my hand away, opting for getting up himself.

 _Okay then._

I turned away and stuffed my hands in my pockets, not even bothering to make the traditional seal of reconciliation after the spar. I knew what meant. He also knew what that meant. The lack of a seal of reconciliation means that the conflict hasn't been resolved, it's _ongoing._

 _I'm coming for you motherfucker._

I know I said that I wanted to make acquaintances with the clan heirs, and possibly forge alliances with them, but dammit, this guy pisses me off!

I'm not sure how long the class lasted, or even who else sparred after us, but as I levelled a hard glare at Kiba, I _knew_ that the game was _on._

* * *

Seriously, pop quiz on the first day? Ugh. I hate teachers like these. I have clan standards to uphold, so if I get anything less than a top score, I'll be failing in the eyes of my clan. I already knew all the answers to the test, but just in case…

How to cheat as subtly as possible?

Or is it even worth the risk? Sharingan perfect memory, after all. I _shouldn't_ have any of my answers be wrong.

But there's just this nagging _doubt_. This horrible _feeling_. And if that feeling proves true, I'll be a shame to the entire…

… ah who am I kidding? I just want an excuse to be a sneaky ninja in an actual active environment.

Hm… maybe a localised Dodemeki to cover up the glow of my Sharingan, then a quick sweep around the room? No, the Dodomeki would render my eyes invisible, giving anyone that looked a nice view into the inside of my skull. I, like many Uchiha, have relatively long hair, so maybe if I shadowed my eyes with my hair, then took a _very_ brief look around, I'd probably be fine.

Probably is not definitely though. Is the risk worth the reward?

Relatively moderate risk, to a chance at _maybe_ getting one or two questions _slightly_ more correct.

Ah, why the hell not?

Er, actually, wasn't Iruka a sensor or something? Or at least had some sort of echolocation jutsu? Or, even if he didn't, he was probably proficient enough in the ninja arts, as a teacher, to tell when chakra was being used. If I started exuding more chakra than was ordinary, he would be able to tell right away that something was up.

Ugh, no cheating for me, I guess.

* * *

I decided to take the scenic route back to the compound, jumping along tree branches in the forest. I noticed Sasuke scampering along the forest floor behind me, struggling to keep pace. Really? He was already that attached. That's a good thing, I suppose. The more attached he is, the more he'll care if I die, and the lower the chance of me being murdered by Itachi is.

I crouched down on the branch I was on and jumped to the ground. I landed next to Sasuke with a soft tap as my feet hit the ground. Sasuke, startled, stumbled and stared wide-eyed at me as I started walking forwards.

Sasuke brushed himself off and joined me, matching my leisurely pace to the compound.

It was a good first day at the Academy.


	4. Chapter 4

_Disclaimer: I own nothing. This is purely for entertainment purposes, and I am making no profit off of this._

* * *

After starting the Academy, my training routine became even more intense. I suppose it made sense. I was the figurehead of my clan's youth right now, and the clan could not afford to look weak.

Every supplementary lesson was given rapt attention. Every sparring match was taken seriously. There was no holding back anymore during matches. The children I beat into the ground would thank me one day for painfully pointing out their weaknesses.

I was no longer uncomfortable with the servants and decided to make full use of them. The library was combed every night for books relevant to my skill set by servants. Books on slightly more advanced genjutsu, fire jutsu, and even some _very_ basic training exercises for lightning and wind. These three elements, especially lightning and fire, were what would probably end up being the basis of my fighting technique. The books would be laid out for me by dawn, and I would scan through them at light speed with my Mangekyou until my chakra ran low.

I started adding more variety into my skill set. The only weapons that I had trained with up until this point were kunai and shuriken.

It was not enough.

Weapons of every variety were added to the mix. Katanas, chokutos, kamas, kusarigamas, battle fans, bo staves. Whatever I could get my hands on, I used my sharingan to gain a cursory understanding and basic proficiency with.

When I added senbon to steadily growing armoury, I picked up the habit of spinning them around my fingers. It was rather similar to pen spinning back home. The needlelike weapons would be spun, thrown, and caught by my fingers. I needed to increase my dexterity. I needed to do anything I could to make my hands faster, to make them more capable of hand signs, wielding weapons, drawing seals, and really anything else.

The standards had been raised, and I would not let my clan down.

With all of the new weapons, I needed a place to store them all. I ended up buying a pair of bracers with storage seals in them to store a good number of them. The bracers actually didn't have the capacity to store all of my weapons, so I ended up also getting bandages with storage scrolls printed all over them and wrapping them around my forearms.

I'm not just training with weapons either. I've been trying to improve my genjutsu, finding more and more ways to get my chakra to others. It's relatively easy to implant illusions through eye contact now, with the sharingan especially. I'm trying to get my chakra to travel through other means though. For example, through chakra strings, and through sounds. My chakra strings are too glowy to be effective stealthily, and so far, I've been unsuccessful with auditory genjutsu.

I still do throw genjutsu at random children with my sharingan though.

It never fails to get a chuckle out of me, when I pass by little kid, and they suddenly scream in horror and run from imaginary monsters.

Ah, good times.

I don't have a problem, do I?

Nah. We're good.

In the little free time that I have, I've taken to training and sparring with Indra. In the future, Indra'll turn out to be a monster of a shinobi, and an undeniably good asset to have. Especially with all of that magical extra sharingan power bullshit that comes with existing as an Uchiha.

Indra has been taking to the training rather well. His prodigy nature isn't as pronounced as Itachi's, but he's definitely talented.

It's like sharpening a sword.

Indra will become my weapon to wield.

* * *

Kiba and I have been partnered up for sparring once again. I'm rather excited to be fighting him again. I've improved drastically since the last time that we've sparred, and I've been getting antsy to try out my new moves.

Most of the other children were looking in our direction. Our last sparring match had been rather one sided, and had rather dramatically, so many were looking for entertainment or gossip material.

Kiba looked much more contained and disciplined this time around. He was still a brawler type, but he had definitely receive more training. His more predictable and open attacks would likely be more guarded this time. I assumed a slightly more defensive position. His style had probably changed more than mine had, so I would stay reactionary and observe for a bit to see if there was anything ridiculous that he could pull out.

"Hajime!"

And we were off.

Sure enough, Kiba was more careful and guarded than last time. Instead of charging headfirst into the fight, he stayed back and observed. It wasn't quite something that he naturally did, as he was noticeably holding himself back. It was likely something that the clan beat into him after his defeat last time we sparred.

I tensed slightly and leaned forwards, and then relaxed back into my former pose. Kiba, being over eager to start fighting immediately started forwards a few steps, until he saw that I actually hadn't moved. Embarrassed, he pulled back. He definitely was told after the last spar to be more cautious in combat. Evidently, the lesson hasn't truly settled in yet.

I decided to make the first move and dashed sideways to the left. Kiba reacted quickly reflexively mirrored the movement, running to intercept me. I quickly switched directions and went to the right.. Kiba, again, mirrored my movements.

Making use of the extensive footwork that had been drilled into my head, I ran towards Kiba in a complicated zigzagging pattern. Kiba tried to do the same, but couldn't get his feet to move fast enough.

While Kiba was off balance from trying to mimic my movements, I struck. A quick flurry of hits was sent his way. A few of them would probably bruise, but none of them looked like they would put him down. He's become more durable, it seems. The punches served their purpose, however, and had thrown him off balance enough for me to deliver a heavy kick to his left side. The kick would slow him down and force him to favour one side over the other.

Kiba regaining enough sense to function again, lashed out in all directions in hopes of getting a hit in. A quick backstep on my part put me out of the range of his hits.

Kiba, apparently, was more injured from my hits than I realised. He appeared rather weak and tired, panting heavily. Only a few more good hits in, and he would probably be done for. Greedily, I circled back to deliver more punches and-

 _Thud!_

My breath rushed out of my lungs, and I stared, wide-eyed at Kiba.

 _That sneaky bastard!_

Kiba's fist had landed square in my chest with a surprising amount of speed. Gasping for breath, I retreated. Dammit, he was faking weakness! I mean, we're ninja, so we're supposed to be sneaky like that, so… good for him I guess? But still, it pisses me off!

My expression must have been rather hilarious, being shocked by Kiba's hit and all, as the children around me started sniggering.

 _Stop laughing, all of you._

I stood, confused, at the high pitched laughter of children. There was something in the laughter that seemed a little more… sinister. My eyes itched and burned. Forgetting the fight entirely, I began to rub at them. There was something wrong here.

 _Close your fucking mouths before I drown you in my hate._

Rising from his position, Kiba smirked triumphantly at his small victory. I felt a bit of irritation at his smug expression, and suddenly the children _twisted._

 _Their laughter spiraled into insanity. Their bodies, hung on ebony crucifixes, stretched into the crimson sky, their grotesque, disfigured faces converging into the cancerous growth of the moon. Their disgusting carmine faces stretched and cannibalised one another, spraying a flood of crimson fluid from the crying eye of the moon. The faces gleefully giggled as they consumed one another. They were laughing._

 _They were all laughing_ _ **.**_

 _I will not be mocked by these fucking children._

The h _a_ te _sunk_ in. _Ki_ ba _was only somet_ hing _sta_ nding in t _he w_ ay. These fucking _children_ o _n th_ e _sideli_ nes were only _**in my way**_ _._

 _ **Get the fuck out of the WAY!**_

The edges of my vision were stained black and crimson, and the world _span into infinite pinwheels._

* * *

The details of the fight were preserved crystal-clear with my sharingan. I had brutalised Kiba, smashing his face in. It was automatic. I was on a hatred-fueld autopilot at the time. Kiba ended up needing to go to the hospital and remain in the intensive care unit for a few weeks. He'll make a full recovery, but if I had dealt any more damage than I had, he may have had permanent damage.

A few children, after witnessing the event, ended up taking a break for a few days, and others quit the Academy entirely. The assistant instructor that was proctoring our spar handed in his resignation form only a few days after the spar.

Fugaku had only mildly reprimanded me. Relations between the stuck up and formal Uchihas and the boisterous Inuzukas had never been very good, and such a violent spar was absolutely fine as far as the power-obsessed Uchiha were concerned. The only reason that Fugaku scolded me at all was because the offense would be visible on my shinobi record, and something like that wasn't quite what one would want to see in a prospective shinobi of the leaf.

I decided to go out and train. If I could find Indra, I'd spar with him as well. What the fight with Kiba had taught me was that either my progress was starting to slow down, or other children were starting to catch up to me in terms of skill. It was only a few weeks ago that I couldn't even be touched in a spar. The fact that Kiba manages to get a solid punch in was a sign that I had to pick up the pace with training. I should have been able to see that he was faking weakness. And even if I couldn't, my reflexes should have been good enough that I could dodge the hit anyways.

The clan wouldn't accept anything else, after all.

I'd probably go to one of the Uchiha training grounds. Maybe I'd also make a pit stop at the Uchiha armoury too. I'd have to see if I could find any stealth seals. I was thinking that I could perhaps sneak into a training ground when a particularly powerful Uchiha like Itachi or Shisui was training and steal their techniques.

To avoid being seen even by the sharingan, I could cloak myself in Dodomeki. To avoid all the other stuff from being detected, I could slap a whole truckload of seals on myself. Stuff like chakra suppression seals, odour disguising seals, the works.

On my way out, I saw Itachi walking into the house. He graced me with a friendly smile, something that a family might regard another with. But there was something in his eyes that was colder than anything that I had seen before.

Those eyes… they spoke of something deeper. Behind the coal, there was a crimson flame. It licked at logs and consumed them. It crackled in cruel, fiery laughter.

 _Why are you laughing?_

 _The flames stretched into cold infinity. They soared into inky spirals in the scarlet heavens. The eye of God peered down at the ruined, craggy landscape. Ash rained from the open floodgates of flame. The ash poured in a torrential flood. A blizzard of soot was swirling around me, coalescing into shadowy figures. The shadows were images of… myself?_

 _The shadows caught on fire, screaming in pain. They were not me, but… others. Their ashen skin burned away to reveal that they were only hollow shells. The inferno spat out paper. The paper drifted around me. I snatched one from the air and saw that it was… a comic? No, a page from a manga. Naruto._

And then I remembered.

The Uchiha clan would fall.

And Itachi would be one to end it.

I realise now. I've immersed myself too deeply within this fictional world I've found myself within. I've forgotten the future in favour of short term goals. Beating up Kiba, training, my little goals were distracting me.

The cold fire burned brighter in Itachi's eyes, and I knew that no, I would not be spared. Itachi would spill my blood, just as he would everyone else. Everyone but Indra, that is.

Indra

He was the one. The only real Uchiha. The rest of us were doomed to die. To die at the hands of the icy crimson fire.

Time slowed down at that moment. Itachi's eyes were drowning me. It was suffocating. The clock was ticking. The sand in the hourglass was drifting downwards. Time was running out. How could I escape this? How was I so casual about this man? How was I so careless? So carefree?

"Is something the matter, Kyouki?" He asked me, his voice spilling with false concern.

 _Stop it. Stop pretending to care. Fujin, Dodomeki. I want to run. I want to hide._

I nervously swallowed and looked at him, "What?" My eyes were starting to burn.

 _Get away from me, murderer._

"Your sharingan activated. Are you alright?"

I glanced around and took in the unreal clarity with which I saw the world. I really had activated my sharingan in my panic. I flicked my eyes back to him, "I'm fine."

"Good," He smiled, "I was worried for a minute."

 _I saw the truth. His smile was cold. A thin mask draped over and concealing the Phlegethon._

His icy smile was scorched into my memory with the searing brand only afforded by the sharingan.

 _I hate you. I hate you so much. I will erase you one day._

* * *

 _A/N: I'm not quite certain how much angst I wanted here. I was a bit excited 'cause the symbolism of the Mangekyou abilities was finally out in the open, and I was starting the italics 'hate speak.'_

 _Few quick questions:_

 _Should I change the A/Ns to bold text instead? I feel like maybe they'd be confused for the 'hate text' and it'd be confusing and perhaps jarring to see that it was an A/N instead._

 _How does the Mangekyou transplant work exactly? Supposedly they're fused together or something, but I'm not sure that they were really explained in the manga. Do you get both abilities at once with the fusion of the eyes or something? Can you implant them one at a time? How does the fusion aspect come in, if it even does?_


	5. Chapter 5

_Disclaimer: I own nothing. This is purely for entertainment purposes, and I am making no profit off of this._

* * *

I was training now for a different reason. I wasn't training for the pride of the clan, or even personal pride.

I was training for survival.

How could I cheat death? How could I escape Itachi's grasp?

I couldn't fight him. That was for certain. I could no sooner fight the reaper, Itachi, than I could fight the sky or the ocean. My plan to cheat death was to graduate and start going on missions as soon as possible.

Hopefully by the time that the massacre happened, I would have already been going on missions outside of the village walls. One of the missions would conveniently go horribly wrong and Uchiha Kyouki would 'die.'

I would have to tie up all of the loose ends, of course. I had to gain enough strength either kill my entire team, or gain enough skill in genjutsu to fool them into thinking that I was dead and that my body was irretrievable.

That was the key, leaving no evidence. If they clearly saw me die, but also thought that they could find my body, they would attempt to look for it. Then, finding no body, would realise that I had pulled a runner, or was taken captive by another village or whatever. Then they'd go off and expend lots of resources to try to chase me down.

The stealth and genjutsu option was most certainly the easier option in terms of pulling it off, but killing my entire team would be safer for preventing the knowledge that I had gone rogue from the village.

Both of them seemed very nearly impossible to pull off anyways, but until I thought of anything better, they were my options.

In any case, I had to train harder. I had to truly push myself to the limits. I'm certainly beyond the skill of the those in my class, but to graduate early enough to secure a team to go on missions with I had to truly be a prodigy. I had to be someone that could stand on the same level as Itachi and Kakashi.

I had been trained since childhood, but I had never truly pushed myself to overperform. My training was intense, but it was nowhere near 'backbreaking.' I thought that the rate at which I had been accumulating skill was more or less sufficient. I foolishly allowed the traitorous thoughts of 'good enough' to seep into my mind.

No more.

When practicing my punches against a training post, I didn't train until my knuckles were bruised. I practiced until they were broken and bleeding.

When running, I always pushed myself to do just _one_ more lap. Then another. And then another. And another, until I grew too weary for movement, tripped over my own feet, and collapsed where I lay.

There was always more to do. The first early examination that I could take was only a few short months away. Were this my old world, I would have been convinced that there was no chance that I could be in shape by that time. But in this world, my shattered body could be given chakra-based treatment and could be in good enough shape to train once more the next morning.

To pass the mental part of the exam, I would have to get creative. The vast majority of my childhood reading material had been done on various topics pertaining to chakra and the like rather than history. I did read history, but not nearly as much as I did other topics, and most certainly not enough to pass that portion of the exam.

Thankfully however, I was the child of the clan head. There were always strings to pull, favours to call in. I managed to secure a copy of the answers to this year's exam and I memorised them with my sharingan. It was cheating, but I didn't care. Though, just in case they mixed things up in the exam, I had servants read books aloud as I trained.

I trained long into the night. Then, when my battered and broken body finally collapsed from exhaustion, the servants picked me up and dropped me into the care of the iryo-nin.

Fugaku knew full well what I was doing. Instead of acting like a normal, concerned parent, endorsed my training efforts. He actually paid for a dedicated room and iryo-nin at the compound for healing me after my training.

There was so much to do, and so little time.

* * *

The lessons at the Academy were given very little attention. I had already learned everything that was required of me to know.

So, instead of listening, I refined my chakra control under the table. Leaves were brought into the classroom from outside, and worksheets meant to be used in class were repurposed into surfaces to stick to.

I tried another chakra exercise in which, instead of sticking the leaves or paper onto an area of my body, I would float them just above my skin with a constant stream of chakra emissions. It was rather similar to water walking, which I was already proficient in. I had tried to see if I could mould my chakra to the other side of the leaf and hold it in place like some sort of chakra clamp, I had been met with little success in prior attempts. _._

This time proved to be no different. As my chakra control slipped, the leaf wobbled and slipped from my grasp. The leaf flitted through the air for a few seconds until it settled on the floor just out of my reach.

 _Insufficient._

That was my last leaf.

Dammit.

I took a quick glance at our teacher. He was droning on about some inane math that I had long since mastered. Iruka was conveniently absent today for undisclosed reasons. I was confident that this no-name background character chunin didn't have sensor abilities. I usually couldn't use any jutsu with chakra usage higher than the leaf sticking exercise or else Iruka would detect them.

I poked a single finger outwards. A single chakra thread began to spin its way out of my extended digit. I tried to keep the glow of the thread to its absolute minimum. My skill with them wasn't nearly refined enough to make entirely invisible strands of chakra. I would have to make do.

The chakra thread slithered across the floor. The end of the string tried to poke at the leaf. It flopped around on the floor near the leaf, responding to my untrained and imprecise directions. When I finally managed to have the thread touching the leaf, I forcefully applied my chakra through the thread, attempting some form of long range tree walking. I ended up putting way too much chakra into it, and the leaf exploded with a loud crack.

For fuck's sake.

The entire class turned to the source of the noise. I immediately dismissed my chakra thread and tried to act casual. A few of the students in the class most definitely saw the string, but chose not to expose me, opting instead to shoot me weird looks. They otherwise pretended that nothing had happened.

The teacher had probably seen the thread as well. They were a chunin, after all, so they were at least somewhat skilled. However, perhaps out of fear of angering the Uchiha clan for disciplining the clan head's son, he chose to say nothing.

* * *

The Shunshin was an absolute pain.

Well, not exactly. It only took a bit of reading and a day or two of experimenting to figure out how to use the jutsu. The problem laid with using it well.

There was a reason that most ninja didn't use the Shunshin in combat, despite its apparent usefulness. The instant transition from one place to another was disorientating, and it threw many off.

With the high speed processing of the sharingan, especially the Mangekyou, the transition was no longer a problem. In fact, my eyes processed at a fast enough rate to actually be able to perceive myself moving as I used the Shunshin.

But there was the problem. I couldn't accurately use the Shunshin without the aid of the sharingan. I had a precious little amount of time with my sharingan, and I couldn't waste a single second of it. Though my reserves had grown, I still couldn't use my Mangekyou for any longer than about three minutes.

Three minutes of sharingan time and the Shunshin was just fine for a short battle with an average ninja. Genin, and even most chunin would fall nearly instantly as I zipped to them with the shunshin. Even groups of them wouldn't really be a problem, as the low chakra cost of the shunshin made it possible for me to use it over and over.

It wouldn't be enough for a fight with a jounin level opponent. They would be able to react to it and counter it with relative ease. They would whittle my strength away, batting away my strikes like they were nothing. All the while, I would burn through my precious time with the sharingan, leaving me with nothing to defend myself with, as the shunshin was no longer a viable option without the sharingan.

There were, of course, other jutsu that I could use. But, looking back on most of them, I had only picked them out of the library because they looked cool, rather than considering their actual utility. There were a scarce few that I would consider using regularly in combat. None of them matched the level of versatility that the shunshin afforded.

And so, I laboured. I worked long a hard, trying to perfect the shunshin to a point that I could use it effectively in combat without my sharingan active.

I failed

 _Insufficient. You are insufficient._

The shunshin began to soak up too much of my time. I tried my hardest to make it work without my sharingan, but after spending a week or so trying, I decided to drop it for now.

With the first round of early exams just a week away, I wanted something that could make me stand out from the rest of the crowd. I wanted to be truly exceptional. If I stood out as an extraordinary student, I would get the best jounin-sensei, and therefore progress at a faster rate. The shunshin would have accomplished that goal, had I perfected it, but there was no time.

The shunshin would be good enough as it was, for now. I decided to simply train in the basic areas of shinobi combat. I refined my taijutsu and improved my usage of weapons. I was proficient enough in every area that I felt mattered. I had studied and cheated enough to secure a pass in the academic portion of the exam.

Come next week, I would pass. I would secure a team. I was certain.

* * *

 _A/N: So, I've slightly rewritten the first chapter. Instead of having Kyouki awaken the Mangekyou on his own, I had a sort of 'beast' manipulate things. If you could go back read it and let me know what you think, that would be great_

 _Thanks to those of you who've basically given a green light for author's liberty with the sharingan. I'll probably just make something up when it comes time for Kyouki to begin implanting the eyes. I might even make up some more lore for the sharingan and Mangekyou in general._

 _RealistIze: Thank you for catching that. I have a habit of missing things, so it's always welcome when people point things out._

 _NeoArmstrongCycloneJetArmstron: I like to think that Kyouki is an unreliable narrator._ _He doesn't see things exactly how they are. He believes Itachi to be a cold killer that's just pretending to be friendly because the things that he remembers are the parts where Itachi kills the clan. As for the Curse of Hatred, here's some quotes from the Naruto wiki:_

" _... an Uchiha's love can instantaneously turn into hatred, leaving them more inclined to do anything and everything in their power to achieve their goals and show their own superiority."_

" _... the Curse of Hatred typically sees Uchiha displaying self-interested tendencies, sacrificing the many for the betterment of the few, specifically the clan or an Uchiha's close intimates."_

 _I definitely took a few liberties with it, you're right. I wanted the story to go a certain way, so perhaps it's a bit different than in canon. I tried to reflect the other aspects of it, if that's any better. Kyouki saw the laughter as something making him inferior, so he went crazy trying to make himself superior again. The clan thing also. In the past few chapters, Kyouki's been mentioning the clan and his own strength quite a bit. I've been trying to hint that the curse has been nudging him beat down on others to make him and his clan seem better. As for Kiba, I wanted to show that the clan was very displeased with his performance at the first spar with Kyouki (completely one-sided beatdown and shameful with the lack of the seal of reconciliation), and that they've beat into his head to think in combat. I tried to show that the lesson hasn't fully sunk in yet with his slip-ups. Maybe I've overdone it with his caution._


	6. Chapter 6

_Disclaimer: I own nothing. This is purely for entertainment purposes, and I am making no profit off of this._

* * *

I passed the genin exam, and was filled with a euphoric relief. Perhaps there was hope that I wouldn't die come the massacre.

There was nothing glamorous in my pass. I was no Itachi. I didn't impress any of my instructors, and I certainly didn't graduate at the top. I was hovering somewhere near the bottom of the class. Even though I had cheated in the academic portion, I still barely managed to make the cut.

But I graduated, and I did it in just a single year, something that very few could attest to having done.

I had to go to a different room for my team assignments, as the class I normally was with with Asura and Indra weren't graduating. I eagerly paid attention to the team assignments, listening for my name.

Team Four will be Seitaro Chiba, Tomiji Koshi, and Kumi Hara. You will be under the jounin Shibuya Hisano.

Team Team Seven will be…

Oof. Unlucky ninja, those guys. They'll be assigned to Kakashi, and be doomed to fail. A rough start to a ninja career for sure.

"... and Uchiha Kyouki and Gomi Hikari will go into the genin reserves."

 _What?_

I spoke up, "Excuse me?"

The instructor looked irritated at having to repeat himself, "You and Gomi Hikari will go into the genin active reserves, to be given priority for team placement the next year."

It took me a few moment to absorb that fact. I had _passed,_ but I wouldn't be assigned a team.

Who were the fucking _idiots_ in charge of assigning teams had decided that?

No seriously, I was the child of the head of the _Uchiha clan._ Why the hell did they think that it was a good thing to shunt me to the side?

I smile full of malicious mirth began to form on my lips.

Oh, Fugaku would have their asses for this.

* * *

And that was how I got Kurenai as my sensei.

Fugaku ended up throwing such a giant hissy fit that the village decided to grant me my own chunin in an apprenticeship.

Now, normally apprenticeships don't quite work like that, being established on a more personal basis. But, because of Fugaku's _major_ hissy fit, the importance of the Uchiha clan, and the dissatisfaction that they were _already_ feeling, they made an exception for me.

There still was a level of personal selection in the matter, because the Hokage couldn't straight up _make_ anyone take me in. He could, however, put my name out there and offer to several of the chunin that were available. Kurenai was a chunin at this point, apparently. She would probably get promoted in a year or two. At the very least, I was confident that I was getting one of the highest calibre chunin that were available, instead of some random background character cannon-fodder chunin.

The reason that Fugaku accepted a chunin as my master, and the reason the village was dipping into the chunin bucket at all was because of the jounin shortage in the village.

Konoha worked exceedingly hard after the Kyuubi attack. Every other village had heard of the Kyuubi attack, and were probably considering an invasion. Konoha had to put up a strong front after the attack in order to fool them into thinking we were stronger than we were in actuality. Every single available ninja, and even some that were retired, were pulled out into overtime in order to preserve Konoha's strong front.

So, not only were we short on jounin in general, but around half of them were required to constantly be on the field to preserve Konoha's image. That was the reason that some of us were put into the active reserve. There simply weren't enough jounin to accommodate all of the genin.

That being said, they probably could have at least passed the freaking son of the _Uchiha clan head._

Actually, they probably did it because I was at the bottom of my class, and, in order to maximise the limited pool of jounin, they only allowed the better students get jounin senseis.

Huh.

Well, in any case, I got a sensei.

* * *

I never did realise this before, but I'm a very antisocial child.

It's not really my fault. Fugaku and Itachi are always too busy to socialise with, not that I'd want to even if they were available, and Mikoto was always just a pain in the ass with the concerned parent shit that she was giving me.

The only one that I really got along with was Indra, and he was stunted too, from years of neglect, so he wasn't really helping my social situation. That was probably why he put up with my clunky interaction, because he had no one else.

Anyways, I have to learn how to smile and laugh and be a normal human in general in preparation for the interaction that I'll have to do in the field and with my sensei to be.

Which is I'm currently staked out on one of the busier streets in the village, cloaked under a light genjutsu, and observing random people and their interactions with my sharingan.

When I get home, I'll have to practise my smile in the mirror. When I tried to do so beforehand, the only thing that appeared on my face was this creepy-ass lip movement. I decided that having that unnerving expression on my face was not exactly conducive to social interaction, so I'd have to practise the smile. That was why I was observing the people in the street. I would later put together the things I liked the most about every smile I observed, and throw it onto my face.

I would practise a laugh as well, but I'm afraid that the noise it'll make when practising will alarm the others in the clan compound. I'll have to take a pass on the laugh. The other aspects of interaction are just conversation, which I'm reasonably good at, I think.

I think that was enough creepy watching for one day. I began to head home to practise my smile.

* * *

"So, let's get to know each other. How about the usual: likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams?" Kurenai started off the conversation.

I gave her my widest, cheesiest, and hopefully, most charismatic smile. I had practised several different ones yesterday. This one was for when I wanted to impress. The others included little ones that I would keep on whenever I was supposed to be in a good mood, ones that were slightly strained to show people that I was irritated, and a couple variations of my others, so that my expressions had less uniformity.

"My name is Uchiha Kyouki. I like dango and really, sweets in general. I dislike it when senbon snap. My hobbies are training, reading, and playing with my brother. My dream is to become a great ninja of the leaf!" I had rehearsed this last night, putting together something that was both believable and not very alarming, putting in inflections when needed.

Kurenai also introduced herself, but I hardly listened. I was more interested in her body language. I had, when I was researching human behaviour yesterday, read many things about body language, and how it could relay how a person was _really_ feeling.

Kurenai had a sort of stance that suggested that she was both slightly nervous, and excited. Slightly nervous probably because this is her first teaching experience, and also the fact that her first student is the son of the Uchiha clan head. Excited probably because training anyone with the sharingan is always the dream. It's much easier on the teacher when the student can just memorise anything you show them.

We started with a demonstration of what I could do. A simple sparring match went underway. I started off by using a genjutsu on her. Something minor, a genjutsu that made it appear as though I was slightly more to the left than I was in actuality.

It was nothing that would make her suspicious, and nothing that would win the fight alone. I preferred the more subtle route with genjutsu, slowly layering them on top of each other. A little something that would make see things slightly slower than they actually were, another to make things seem slightly closer together. A dozen genjutsu were layered on top of each other throughout the fight, slowly desynchronising the target from reality, until they were weak enough to beat easily.

I dashed at her and threw a small punch at her right hip. Besides maybe dealing enough damage to make her slightly favour the left side more than she already was from the genjutsu that I had cast, the punch also served as a point of contact with which to cast another genjutsu.

I hadn't ever used so many genjutsu in spars before, but since I was being apprenticed to a up and coming 'genjutsu master' I might as well show her what I can do with the illusions. Hopefully she'll be impressed by my application.

Although from the way that things are looking, I might not even need her help. I was winning the fight, easily. She had been on the defensive since the beginning, and was beginning to slow down from both fatigue and the few genjutsu that I had cast on her.

I reached out to unseal a few senbon from my storage seal bandages. With a small bit of smoke, they appeared in my hand. I threw a small barrage of the senbon at Kurenai, which she dodged by pivoting to the left, as I had predicted. The genjutsu I had cast on her were designed to make her favour her left side, making it easier to predict which direction that she would dodge. By the team she had entirely reoriented herself, a shuriken was already flying her way.

Kurenai's eyes widened as the shuriken buried itself in her left thigh and she sunk to the ground.

I was kind of expecting more from a supposed high-tier chunin. A slightly below average genin managed to take her out. Albeit, I wasn't really below average in terms of combat ability, it's just that the Academy exams hadn't allowed me to bring out everything that I had. But still, a fresh genin shouldn't be able to beat a top-notch chunin.

I unsealed a kunai and held it in a reverse grip, planning to end the fight. I walked towards her and shoved the blade of the kunai against her throat.

"You lose," I intoned.

She simply smiled in response, "What do you mean?"

And the world _twisted._

" _You_ lose."

 _The hell?_

I was bound against a trunk of a tree, with all of my storage seal bandages laying on the ground far out of my reach. Kurenai was standing exactly where she had been at the beginning of the fight, smiling lightly at me.

"You know, that _would_ have been pretty impressive had it been real. Your genjutsu usage is probably the most sophisticated I've ever seen in a genin. Most people, even chunin and jounin, go for the big impressive genjutsu rather than the small stuff."

"Hn," I grunted back in the standard grouchy Uchiha way.

Kurenai's face fell slightly. Had I been any less observant, I would have missed it. It was just a tiny motion. She herself had probably not noticed it. But I did. Right. First teaching experience, and she's just a chunin. Student acknowledgement is important as a teacher. Grunting is not a very encouraging response from a student.

"So, what went wrong?" I asked her.

Better. Her expression brightened up minutely. "I cast the genjutsu at the very beginning of the spar. You need to be more aware of you surroundings. If you hadn't underestimated me and activated your sharingan at all, you would've realised you were under an illusion."

I narrowed my eyes. She was right. I _had_ underestimated her. Why didn't I use my sharingan at all during the fight? That's just… strange. I was _always_ taught by the various Uchiha tutors to activate your sharingan in battle against someone of superior strength. I _knew_ she was a chunin with the potential to become a jounin, so why hadn't I… ?

Ah!

"You genjutsu'd me into not using the sharingan, didn't you?"

"Ah! I was wondering if you'd catch that. I did," Kurenai continued on, happy that she could finally start teaching, "Tiny adjustments in the senses aren't the only way to throw an enemy off balance. Slight suggestions in their thoughts also work well to gain an advantage during a fight. Make them underestimate you. Make them refuse to pull out their best stuff because you're not 'worthy.'"

"Hm… interesting. You're playing on the natural things that people think. Ninja generally only pull out their best jutsu towards the end of a fight, if they're struggling, rather than using trump cards in the beginning to end fights quickly. You're playing on that idea."

"Of course. It's quite a bit easier to make people think things if they're already thinking along the same lines."

Hm.

I suppose Kurenai will be a worthwhile sensei after all.

* * *

 _A/N: If anyone could reread the first chapter and give me their thoughts on the rewritten version of it, that would be great. I'm not exactly entirely confident in it, so if you could give me any feedback, that would be great._


	7. Chapter 7

_Disclaimer: I own nothing. This is purely for entertainment purposes, and I am making no profit off of this._

* * *

Kurenai disapproved of my bandage storage seal system. She said that it limited my draw speed, which, in hindsight, was true. The only reason I hadn't noticed it was because I normally don't spar with people with weapons. Most of my spars have been with pure taijutsu.

So, I had to modify the system. The impracticality of the system was due to the fact that I had to reach for my weapons. Even though I knew the location of the seal for every one of my weapons by memory, it still cut down on the draw time for them. The slower draw speed could prove to be fatal in the long run, so I modified it.

I bought a pair of fingerless gloves with sealing scrolls in the palms. Those seals held the main three weapons that I would be using: shuriken, kunai, and senbon. With the gloves, I could draw my main weapons at a nearly instantaneous rate. I ended up keeping the bandages, keeping some of the larger weapons like swords in there, as well as having backup stocks of the three mains that I kept in the gloves.

Kurenai also suggested that I start learning about poisons. With the subtle and generally not very lethal nature of genjutsu, it would be useful to have an effective, non-chakra way of taking enemies out from a distance. While I could do the same thing with a kunai or a shuriken to the throat, a poisoned senbon would do the job with less mess. Additionally, poison would be useful for assassinations and whatnot. It was just an all-around good skill to have.

With the use of poisoned senbon, I had to also have some medical knowledge, both to discern the most effective places to throw senbon into, and to just make them. I figured that I'd tackle the medical side of things by applying for a part-time apprenticeship at the hospital. I'd work there on the days which Kurenai wasn't training me.

Normally, the hospital didn't allow part-time apprentices, preferring dedicated, full-time workers. However, in my case, the hospital was ecstatic to have an Uchiha. Really, they were ecstatic to have any working dojutsu. Both the Byakugan and the Sharingan were absolutely amazing for medics, the Byakugan being able to see through the body and figure out what was wrong without even using a diagnostic jutsu, and the Sharingan being able to carry out extremely exact medical procedures, as well as being able to learn all of the medical jutsu quickly.

The thing is, both the Hyuuga and the Uchiha clan dismissed the idea of their clansmen becoming lowly iryo-nin, encouraging them to take part in the flashy, combat side of things. As such, even with my nature as a part-timer, they accepted me, and they were thrilled to have me there.

I had been given a rough medical education. WIth my Sharingan, I had easily memorised all of the medical journals pertaining to anatomy. The iryo-nin had also given me a demonstration of various medical jutsu, like the Mystic Palm and the Chakra scalpels. My chakra control wasn't high enough to actually use most of them, but I managed a rudimentary Mystic Palm to heal minor cuts, but I had trouble matching the chakra together for more severe wounds.

And then came the other training. Under Kurenai, my genjutsu progressed from the rudimentary, mostly self-taught things that they had been before, to elaborate and significantly more believable illusions. Layering genjutsu on top of each other, I learned, was actually a difficult process. I had achieved the layering part of things only because I hadn't been layering very many on top of each other, perhaps four at the most, and my genjutsu were very basic. For more complicated illusions, with more layers, the chakra would run into and interfere with one another.

As a pleasant side effect of practising so much genjutsu, my chakra control skyrocketed. Within a few weeks of training with Kurenai, I was able to use over half of the jutsu that I memorised from the Uchiha library, the ones that I got but couldn't use, that is. I probably wouldn't use any of them anyways. When I was in the library, I mostly grabbed stuff that looked cool rather than stuff that was actually useful. I'll have to change my orders to the servants, and have them bring me actually practical stuff.

* * *

Indra's been improving rapidly. He wasn't at my level quite yet, the Mangekyou that I had since birth, in addition to my training with Kurenai making me far superior in combat.

We were currently locked in a spar. He threw a punch. I recognised this one from the Uchiha style. Here's the problem with using the same techniques as your enemy: they already know how to counter it.

This was a basic punch from the Uchiha style. Even without the Sharingan active, I knew exactly where his fist would go. Grasping it in my hand, I twisted it in an awkward angle. If I really wanted to, I could have pulled the arm clean out of its socket. But, this was a friendly spar intended for training. I only twisted it enough to make him feel some discomfort, and to throw him off balance.

He tried to get his bearings back, but I wouldn't let him recover, assaulting him with rapid-fire punches.

Indra surprised me though, and did a spin on the ground. I jumped over his spinning legs, which made me stop my barrage of bunches, allowing him to recover somewhat. Indra got back up and took a ready pose.

I slight warmth flared in my right hand.

"Hold on, Sasuke," I held up a finger and checked my hand. I had installed a sort of 'watch' seal on the glove on my right hand. It was a rudimentary timekeeping system, not really a watch. The seal drew on a tiny amount of my chakra. Every fifteen minutes, it would discharge the chakra as heat, and draw more chakra from me. In such a manner, I can more or less keep track of time. This was a temporary measure until I could figure out a better system. For whatever reason, I couldn't find a watch in the marketplace.

Anyways, I had been counting the heat surges from the seal, and it was about time for me to go to the hospital.

"I'm gonna have to leave now, Sasuke. Make sure to keep training, you're getting better. Keep at it."

Indra smiled brightly and nodded, "Yes, onii-sama."

What an adorable weapon.

* * *

"You think you're up for a C-Rank mission?"

I raised an eyebrow at Kurenai while running. Today's main exercise involved running laps along a side of a cliff using the tree walking jutsu, while at the same time casting genjutsu. When I wasn't running D-Ranks, I was doing this sort of training with Kurenai.

"Probably," I replied.

"Probably?"

"There's always a chance things'll go wrong, and my auditory genjutsu aren't quite up to par yet," C-Ranks weren't supposed to have combat with enemy ninja, so it wasn't entirely imperative that I refine all of my genjutsu but, as the Land of Waves mission in canon demonstrated, things didn't always go as planned.

"I wouldn't worry about those. You're probably more than combat ready."

"Hm. If you say so."

"Let's go to the mission office then, we'll see if there are any good C-Ranks left."

I hopped off the cliff and put chakra into my feet. When I hit the ground, I pushed the chakra that was focused in my feet into the slight noise that I purposely made. I can normally hit the ground nearly silently, as most ninja can, but I was purposely using the sound as a vessel for an auditory genjutsu.

"Nice try, but your chakra dissipated before it even reached me."

I deflated slightly, and jogged slightly to catch up with her.

She looked backwards and smirked at me, "Race you there."

The second I heard her, I activated my Sharingan. Pride dictated that I at least try to win this. After the genin exam, I had practised with the Shunshin to the point that I could _sort of_ use it effectively without my Sharingan. 'Sort of' very much being the operative word in that sentence. Travelling places without the Sharingan was… okay. It wasn't perfect by any means, I tended to overshoot or undershoot quite a bit, but it was functional, more or less. It was actually using it in combat that was the issue, as without the Sharingan, I _still,_ even after all my new training, couldn't use it.

I'll figure it out later.

With the Sharingan, I saw her shoot off in a Shunshin. I brought my hands up into a hand seal and began my own Shunshin. With the Sharingan active, I could see myself and Kurenai flying through the village. With Kurenai's greater experience, chakra control, and overall skill, there really was no contest. She shot off ahead of me in a significantly faster Shunshin. My only consolation prize was that I _could_ see her, while she was just making a blind jump.

As I saw myself drawing near to the mission office, I deactivated my Sharingan. There was no reason to let her know that I needed 'crutches' to perform the Shunshin accurately.

With the Sharingan deactivated, the rest of the distance passed by in a blur, and then I was standing there, in front of the missions office.

Kurenai didn't say anything, but she silently basked in her glory.

C'mon lady, you beat a newly graduated genin, that you were just _training._ Don't be so damn smug.

…

Okay, not gonna lie, if I get genin someday, I'd probably do the same thing.

Well, if I didn't murder them for being annoying little kids, that is.

We walked into the mission office. The desk chunin handed us several mission scrolls to look over.

"So, what do you think, Kyouki?"

"Hm. Bandits, I think," Bandit clearing missions were easily the most straightforward and easy. They basically boiling down to: get in, kill everything, leave, as opposed to the escort-type missions, where you had to travel for days at a slow-ass civilian pace to reach the destination.

Kurenai looked a little surprised, "Are you sure? Most genin don't get the bandit missions."

It makes sense, I guess. The escort missions have a relatively low rate of killing. Even though the risk of being ambushed by bandits is the reason the client wanted a ninja escort in the first place, the chance of an ambush was rather low. As such, escort missions were good starting missions for fresh genin that hadn't gotten their hands dirty yet.

But I wasn't afraid of killing now, was I? I'll take the faster and more convenient mission over the boring as hell escorts.

"Yeah, it's good."

"Well, if you're sure," Kurenai still didn't look entirely assured. But, at my insistence, she took the scroll anyways.

"Meet me tomorrow morning at six o'clock at the village gates," she declared, after taking another, deeper look at the mission scroll.

"Yes, Kurenai-sensei."

* * *

 _A/N: This one was a bit shorter than I would have liked, but I just couldn't get it to go further, so yeah._

 _Drakensteel: Thanks for your input about the first chapter's rewrite. Thanks for taking the time to review._

 _MrTicklesMMM: Thanks for the long and detailed review. You definitely pointed out a bunch of things that I hadn't seen, and some things that I'll definitely use, so thanks for that._

 _Concerning the use of Kyouki's Mangekyou abilities, I definitely was going to incorporate Dodomeki and Fujin in higher level combat later. My plan was, as Kyouki gains more experience in the shinobi world, he'll see more applications of the jutsu he already has. That being said, the uses that I had for them were different from the ones that you suggested, so thanks for giving me new ideas._

 _With the faking suicide with collected blood/tattling on Itachi and Shisui thing, then running away to some obscure village idea, it's definitely worth consideration. But there's always the fear of being discovered by other ninja. It doesn't shield him from the Infinite Tsukuyomi either. Sure, Team Seven took care of it in canon, Kyouki's already changed things, and butterfly effect is real._

 _Definitely agree with the stuff you said about the Sharingan, it's basically bullshit in the form of an eye. I'll try to have him bring out the potential of the Sharingan sometime._

 _About the training thing, it's not really in Kyouki's character to do that type of training. Simply put: he's lazy. You can see that he eased off in training in the past chapter or so, and that's because he's just lazy. He trained his ass off for like a little while, and he'll train if someone tells him to, but he doesn't have the drive himself to overtrain like most main characters. That'll definitely change as Kyouki's character develops, and the sort of training you mentioned probably will be featured later._

 _Your suggestions that I haven't addressed now may or may not be featured later on. They were good suggestions, so again, thanks._


	8. Chapter 8

_Disclaimer: I own nothing. This is purely for entertainment purposes, and I am making no profit off of this._

* * *

Kurenai and I made it to the bandit camp around sunset. Without any pesky civilians to slow us down, we were able to travel at shinobi speeds and make significantly better time than in an escort.

We both crouched down on a tree branch and observed the bandit camp, cloaked in the elongating shadows made by the setting sun.

"So, strategy?" Kurenai asked me.

I looked at her, surprised, "I thought that it was your job to come up with a plan?"

Kurenai only shrugged in response, "You can just do the thing solo, and I'll step in if you're doing poorly."

I looked at her for a second, just to make sure that she wasn't joking or something. This _was_ Kurenai, right? The same one that was slightly concerned that I chose the murdery mission over the escort one? Kurenai remained silent, so I guess I was on my own for this one. First mission too. She either has a lot of faith in me, or, she wants me to fail to discourage me from taking murdery missions in the future.

Probably that second one, actually. There was no way a genin, unless they were one par with Itachi or Kakashi, which I was _not,_ could take out a bandit camp alone. Especially one as large as this one. This was the sort of bandit mission that a team of chunin would normally undertake. There was no way Kurenai thought I could do it, there was no way a normal genin could do it.

Unless they were smart and subtle about it.

I couldn't just rush in there and pop a couple jutsu and fry them all. That would be stupid, and, against nearly a hundred bandits, potentially suicidal. So, planning time.

Hm. Well, if I could genjutsu a couple of them into thinking that a party would be a great idea, then it would be an easy victory. After they all pass out drunk, I'd just waltz in and murder them.

The problem is though, they didn't have any alcohol.

Really.

Or at least, I haven't seen any. I've yet to actually scout the camp itself, so I'm not quite certain, but I'm pretty sure they don't have any, at least from what I've seen. I threw in a small suggestion on one of the bandits. Just a tiny little whisper: _You should go have a drink right now._

It wasn't anything big. I learned from Kurenai that you should always go with the small suggestions that appear in the back of their heads.

The guy I targeted though, didn't do anything special, suggesting either that he didn't like alcohol (unlikely, he's a _bandit_ after all), didn't have access to alcohol (maybe not everyone got the booze, in which case trying to induce a party would be pointless), or the camp straight up didn't have alcohol.

In any case, that idea was out.

Hm. I think I've got it now. Yeah, this'll work.

I activated my Sharingan and observed one of the bandits. My chakra capacity and control had improved _massively_ since getting a sensei, so I wasn't afraid of using a bit of my chakra on the Sharingan.

I watched my chosen bandit, memorising his gait and his other mannerisms. Enhancing my hearing with a handy dandy jutsu that Kurenai had taught me a week or two ago, I could eavesdrop on their conversations and figure out how he talked and interacted with other bandits. His name was Eisuke.

Once I felt confident that I knew how to act like the guy well enough, I waited for him to get alone. It took an long hour of waiting in order for him to get sufficiently isolated. He eventually was put on guard duty with one other guy. I can deal with one other guy.

Silently, I crept up to the two unsuspecting bandits. I placed a genjutsu on the other guard, one that would make him see everything exactly as it was at the moment. He would see nothing when I quietly dragged Eisuke's corpse away into the forest. A stab of fast-acting poison administered through a senbon was all it took to bring Eisuke down.

My first kill.

I felt… nothing at all.

I performed the Henge, and assumed the role of Eisuke. I removed the genjutsu from the other guard and stood in the same place as Eisuke had been.

After nearly an hour of solemnly watching the forest later, Eisuke's guard shift finally came to an end, and another set of bandits came to take our place. I recognised one of them, he was friends with Eisuke. I greeted him in the same way I had seen Eisuke greet him before.

"Hey, man," I growled out the words in a raspy voice, imitating Eisuke.

The other bandit nodded in response. While I had eye contact with him, I planted a tiny genjutsu. Just a tiny voice, _Traitor! He's a traitor! Kill him before he kills everyone!_

While that seems like a dramatic genjutsu, I put it in the back of the guy's mind. Just a tiny suggestion. It was only an idle thought.

As I walked through the bandit camp, limping slightly because Eisuke had tripped a few days ago, I implanted the very same genjutsu on all of the bandits that I came across. There were a surprising number of them out and about. I was under the impression that, without electricity, they would have nothing better to do than sleep when the sun went down. Apparently I was wrong. It was a good thing they were active anyways. I could genjutsu more of them.

"Hey Eisuke, how's the leg?" A large man missing several teeth jeered at me. Many of the bandits had made fun of Eisuke for tripping the other day. This was just another bandit come to rub salt in Eisuke's wounds.

"Piss off," I waved him off like Eisuke normally did.

"Hey! Hey! No need to be so rude! I'm just being considerate, eh?"

I looked the man right in the eyes and planted a genjutsu in him. He, from what I saw earlier, didn't exactly like Eisuke. I planted the same traitorous suggestion in the back of his head, but cast another as well. This genjutsu would play on his natural dislike of Eisuke, making him find more reasons to dislike him.

"Piss _off,_ Daishi," I shoved him, usually a meaningless gesture, but in Daishi's mind, it was almost a declaration of war.

"Oh, you wanna _go,_ Eisuke?!" Daishi shoved me back, harder. I stumbled backwards a few steps. Tension in the bandit camp began to rise as Daishi and 'Eisuke' become more angry. The insidious suggestions that I had planted earlier began to not look so unfounded, and they grew more nervous that a 'betrayal' was about to happen.

Perfect.

"Fuck yeah, I wanna _go!"_ I pulled out a kunai and waved around threateningly, "Come on! No balls!"

Daishi hesitated. Even though he had insulted and challenged Eisuke, he had not been expecting _this_. He hadn't been expecting to fight for _real._ Here was the moment where everything came together. Here was where all of my work came into fruition.

Daishi pulled a kunai of his own out and charged me, screaming. The genjutsu I had placed on him earlier only served to fuel his charge. I waited for him to approach.

Just at the last second, I Kawarimi'd with Eisuke's corpse. I had left his body in the forest, and knew exactly where it was. I made sure that the Kawarimi was smokeless so the transition went smoother. It still wasn't exactly perfect, but all of the bandits were nervous, so in the heat of the moment, a bit of choppiness was ignored.

Daishi's kunai slid into Eisuke's chest and the corpse flopped lifelessly onto the ground. Daishi's attack wouldn't have been fatal had Eisuke still been alive, but since I had pre-killed him, it wasn't even relevant.

Daishi sat straddled Eisuke's waist and began to mutilate the corpse, shredding it with his kunai. He grinned at his 'victory.' I had climbed onto another tree branch and was watching the spectacle. Eyes glinting in anticipation, I removed the genjutsu from Daishi.

Daishi eyes lost their bloodlust, and he took another look at what he was doing.

"G-guys! I didn't mean it guys! It was… it… it was just a-"

"Dear Kami, look at what he's done!"

I smirked as the effects of my genjutsu began to become more noticeable. The bandits shouted at one another, then suddenly erupted into a chaotic battle, each throwing accusations at one another. Every single bandit had their weapons drawn, fighting it out with people they had just joked with, only minutes before. It was every man for themselves.

It was delicious.

Why kill them when I could make them kill themselves? I'll just mop up whoever's left.

A figure ran out from one of the bandits' tents, "ENOUGH!"

The leader then. By the time he showed up, the bandits' numbers had dropped to a mere thirty or so already, less than half of what they had before. Even though he had called out, none of the bandits had stopped fighting.

The leader snarled and began to make hand seals. He shouted something and tossed his head backwards. A plume of fire shot from his mouth.

 _That_ got both the bandits' attention, and mine. The bandits snapped out of their genjutsu. Well, they didn't exactly 'snap out of it.' They were still under its effects, but with the heat of battle taken away, the tiny suggestion that I had implanted wasn't as effective anymore.

More importantly, there was a ninja on this mission?

Goddamn it C-Ranks. Things can never be easy with you.

"What the _hell_ is going on!" The bandit leader shouted.

All of the bandits spoke at once, producing a loud, meaningless babble.

"SILENCE!"

They shut up.

"One at a fucking time you morons!"

Okay, this is… unexpected. I have to plan around this I guess. Judging by the way he was willing to just throw away a jutsu, his guy, the bandit leader, probably had a larger than average chakra capacity. He also probably wasn't the most intelligent or pragmatic person. If I had to guess, just from the one jutsu, and the fact that he was the leader of a relatively large local bandit group, I'd place him at high genin or low chunin level.

Well, if you judged him from his straight combat ability. That didn't factor in jutsu or various tactics that could be deployed. I was confident that, with my superior planning and genjutsu, I could take him out.

Let's see, there are about thirty bandits left.

Should I… ?

I could do them the way that most shinobi did, directly engaging them. It seemed like a terrible idea though. I was heavily outnumbered, and I there was an unknown in the bandit leader.

There weren't many other options though. Using genjutsu wouldn't work, I can't place them without eye or skin contact, as my auditory genjutsu wasn't good enough yet.

Hm. I'll engage them, and try to be smart about it. Kurenai will probably act as my safety net should I fail.

I drew two kunai. One of them had a standard explosive tag attached. The other had a lower grade one. I threw the one with the standard explosive tag into the middle of the crowd of bandits. It detonated with a large explosion and took out a good portion of the remaining bandits.

Seventeen left.

They spotted me now. They had seen where the kunai had been thrown from. The bandits began to throw kunai and shuriken in my direction. I activated my Sharingan and brought my hands up for the Shunshins' hand seals.

Weaving myself around the shards of metal they had thrown at me, I flew at them at a ridiculous speed. I reached the halfway point between us, an area clear of metal. I made the hand seals for the Grand Fireball jutsu.

Fire chakra poured out of my mouth, and I spat out a fireball. The orb of flames crashed into the ground, immolating several bandits, and setting part of the camp on fire.

Nine left.

Still in the air, I made the seals for another Shunshin, and shot towards my next victims. Exiting the shunshin just a half metre away from a bandit, I drew a number of poison-coated senbon. With a quick movement of my hands, they were launched in a small barrage of metal sticks.

Five left.

I shut off my Sharingan. I might need the chakra later, so it's best not to use too much of it. I drew a simple, straight sword. A chokuto. I wouldn't be able to Shunshin with an weapon in my hand, as I couldn't make hand seals. I had been dealing with the problem by drawing small throwing weapons, and throwing them away when I needed to make hand seals.

WIth a sword, I had increased melee range, but no longer had access to hand seals, which could prove to be problematic. It shouldn't be a problem right now though, with so little bandits left, I didn't even need jutsu.

Why did I even bother with a sword in the first place? My kunai, shuriken, and senbon just dropped into my hands whenever I wanted them to, so my draw time with them was significantly better than with my sword. And, the weapons could be thrown, so they had a much higher range than the sword.

Why did I even bother?

Eh, whatever. I ran at one of the last bandits. I brandished my sword and-

 _Shink!_

-stuck it through his throat.

Four left.

My sword whipped around and, in a flash of steel, cleaved through a man's neck, separating their head from their body.

Three left.

I stabbed the chokuto through a bandit's chest. They gurgled, blood likely filling their throat, but were still alive. I grabbed the man's shirt and spun around. I held his limp body in front of me, listening to the _thump, thump, thump_ sound of kunai and shuriken hitting his back. I used him as a meat shield.

I dumped his body on the ground and faced the bandit that had thrown the weapons. I threw my sword at him.

Despite the impracticality and general ridiculousness of such a move, the sword struck true and punctured his abdomen. He fell on his knees, then to the ground. I'll retrieve my sword after I kill the rest of them.

Actually, how many am I at right now? I was at three, and I just killed two, so three minus…

One left.

Where's the last guy? I activated my Sharingan, and my eyes span wildly in their sockets as they searched for the final bandit.

 _There!_

Under the ground, there was a disturbance of chakra. He was using the Hiding Like a Mole jutsu to try to sneak up on me. I watched him swim under the ground, and saw when his chakra begin to come near the surface. He was exiting the ground.

I jumped backwards, just in time to avoid an explosion of earth as the bandit leader jumped out from the ground. I got a better look at him. He had brown hair, and wore a pair of brown shorts, with a matching brown pair of sandals. He wore no shirt.

How fashionable.

The bandit leader glared at me, and I stared back. Through the eye contact, I placed a genjutsu, one that would make him see all of my attacks slightly faster than they actually were, making him block just a _bit_ too early.

With a scream, he took off and charged at me. I dodged his charge by darting to the left. My fingers just barely brushed his side as I avoided him, and through the contact point, I put another genjutsu on him.

He swung his fist around with a surprising amount of speed. He was faster than I was expecting, given his bulky frame. I, caught off guard by the punch, was hit backwards, and flew through the air. I landed on the ground several metres away.

I got back up as quickly as I could and activated my Sharingan. I'd have to take him more seriously.

I drew several poisoned senbon and threw a small barrage of them at the bandit leader. He dodged to the side, again demonstrating his surprising speed. I ran right at him, drawing shuriken as I ran, throwing them in parabolic arcs. He span around the shuriken, dodging them. I drew a kunai and threw it. I was only two metres away from him now, so it was much harder for him to dodge. He managed to, but just barely.

As I closed in on him, he began to make attacks of his own. His punches, the speed of which had surprised me before, no longer fazed me with my Sharingan. I saw them coming well before they were executed. It was trivial to avoid them now.

Ducking under his strikes, I punched quickly, using the contact points to put more genjutsu on him. As the fight drew on, he would grow gradually more disorientated as I placed more genjutsu on him, and he wouldn't even notice. All I had to do was make sure none of my genjutsu were too drastic, and to stay alive.

He began to back away from me while making hand seals. I could recognise the sequence of hand seals. They were for a flamethrower jutsu. The weakness of that particular jutsu was its short range. I backed away as well, and the fire that suddenly erupted from the bandit leader's mouth hit no one.

The fire did serve to light more of the bandit camp on fire though. A few of the buildings were on fire from my Grand Fireball, it had spread throughout the fight. The flamethrower jutsu only lit more ablaze.

I made the hand seals for the Shunshin and, with the Mangekyou, appeared instantly behind him. I drew two of my kunai, but the tiny _poof_ noise of the kunai coming out of the seal alerted him to my presence, and he ducked quickly, the two kunai soaring harmlessly over his head.

I made the hand seals for the Shunshin once more, appearing quite a ways up in the air. I drew a kunai, this one with a standard explosive tag strung onto it. I threw the kunai, and detonated the tag as it neared the bandit leader.

I didn't need to wait for the smoke to clear to realise that he hadn't been hit by the explosion. I had watched him Kawarimi away before the explosion had gone off.

I saw him squatting on a tree branch that hung over the burning bandit camp. I blurred through some hand seals and disappeared in another Shunshin. I need to end this quickly. I'm running out of time with my Sharingan.

While I was in my Shunshin, I watched him jump off of the tree branch. I maneuvered my way over to time and exited my Shunshin with my hand extended. I held a kunai in my hand.

The kunai pierced through his stomach. I glanced upwards, hoping to place another genjutsu while I was so close to him.

 _Shit!_

He had a kunai of his own in his hand, and it was descending on me.

There was nothing I could do. One of my hands was gripping a kunai, so I couldn't Shunshin away. There was nothing that I could do to get me out of the way fast enough. I could only watch as the kunai drew closer and closer to my face, in slow motion, as the Mangekyou saw it.

Wait a minute- Mangekyou! I have that short range teleport, Fujin! That shit doesn't need hand-

 _Shink!_

And it was too late.

The bandit leader's kunai pierced my right eye, and I screamed in agony. I still retained the sense to use Fujin and escape the kunai piercing through the rest of my eye. I disappeared and reappeared half of a metre to the left.

But the damage was done.

I was blind in my right eye.

There was something surreal about the experience. Being so connected with your eyes makes it particularly jarring when one of them went dead.

Dead.

An interesting word to use.

It was almost as though my eye was alive, breathing, and now, dead.

Deceased.

Destroyed.

 _Useless._

 _Insufficient._

 _Fucking dammit!_

I put my hands together for a Shunshin and made a tactical retreat into the forest. The bandit leader was beyond me. I couldn't risk losing another eye.

Even with only a single functioning Sharingan, I could still use the Shunshin just fine. I rocketed deeper and deeper into the forest until finally my chakra began to dip into the emergency zone, and I stopped. I was quite a ways away from the bandit camp. By my own judgement, I figured I was about two and a half kilometres away.

I scanned the forest for a good spot to hide out and wait for Kurenai. I spotted a cozy hollow in a tree. Shutting off my Sharingan, I crawled into the hollow.

I took out the the storage seal that contained Mother's eyes. The eyes were sealed in a tube of thick preservative fluid. Since I had waited for a while to get the fluid, they had rotted somewhat. I would have to Izanagi them back into working order.

But I only had one working eye.

I would have to use the Izanagi, then do the entire surgery blind.

The thought terrified me. The brains of the Uchiha were hardwired for the Sharingan, for visual input. There was no way that I could do the surgery myself while blind. I would be worse than even a normal person.

" _Oh no," the beast looked upon the avatar of Mammon, "Now that won't do now, will it?" The beast descended from its palace of monetary lusting and entered the mind of Mammon. The beast inspected the mind of Mammon, and made tweaks. The beast fed the avatar skills and knowledge._

Thankfully, at the hospital, I had read various books on the workings of the eyes. With my relatively good chakra control, I could construct a sort of 'chakra eye.' The chakra eye wouldn't work nearly as well as a normal one would, but at least it was something that I could use while conducting the surgery.

The chakra eyes had the pleasant side effect of being able to see slightly into my skull, as it simulated optical nerves all around. It was almost as though it was entirely designed for eye implants.

I took Mother's eyes out of their tube, their icky, half-decayed forms disgusting me slightly.

Well, here goes.

 _Izanagi._

And I went blind, just for a moment.

* * *

 _A/N: There were quite a few of you that were frustrated with Kyouki's dismissal of his Mangekyou abilities. I did that on purpose. Here's his wake-up call. Here's where he realises that he needs to make use of every tool in his belt. So yeah._

 _Shahzeb: I actually forgot about Yakumo. If I can find a place for her, I'll definitely incorporate her.I didn't really plan out my story to accommodate her, so I'm not quite certain about her, but it would be really cool to include her if I can._

 _Rakaan: The internalisation is because Kyouki views Sasuke as a weapon, seeing Indra's power rather than the little kid Sasuke. It's just a little switch that symbolises his view of Sasuke._


	9. Chapter 9

_Disclaimer: I own nothing. This is purely for entertainment purposes, and I am making no profit off of this._

* * *

My new Mangekyou abilities, the ones I got from Mother's eyes, were again, jokes.

No, I can't say that. I dismissed my original Mangekyou abilities, but if I had even considered their utility, I wouldn't have had to make the switch in the first place.

My new Mangekyou abilities would require some thought in order to use them effectively in combat.

Better.

Mother's left eye could grow a flower from a seed anywhere within visual range.

 _Jubokko_

Unfortunately, because the Sharingan didn't have x-ray vision, I couldn't grow flowers inside of people's bodies, and wreck their organs or anything.

Actually… with a combination attack including both Dodomeki to render an object invisible and let me see through it, and Jubokko, I _maybe_ do that. It's a stretch though, that's for certain.

I'll have to find out what 'within visual range' _really_ means and test it out.

Flowers may or not be useful to have on demand anyways. They could be good distractions at the very least.

Mother's right eye could cast a genjutsu to make it seem as though an entire area was flooded.

 _Funayurei_

The size of the flooded area dictated the amount of chakra used. Tiny patches of water only took tiny amounts of chakra, and to 'flood' an entire area took an immense amount of chakra.

Upon further inspection, Funayurei might be more useful in combat than I had first thought. I could blind someone by 'flooding' the area in front of their eyes. I could also fool water jutsu users, making them try to draw on water that didn't actually exist.

I would have to get out of the habit of dismissing things that didn't have an immediately apparent application.

I would also have to start incorporating both Fujin and Dodomeki into my fighting style, as I should have from the very beginning. Now that my eyes were Eternal Mangekyou, I _literally_ had no reason not to.

I sat in the hollow that I had done the surgery in, waiting for Kurenai to come pick me up. I had slept away the night, and with my seal 'watch,' I figured that around four hours had passed since I woke up. I woke up just before sunrise, and sunrise this time of year was around five o'clock. So, it was around nine o'clock, and Kurenai still hadn't come to find me.

Something was probably wrong here.

Oh yeah, speaking of Kurenai…

 _The fuck lady!?_

I was out there with that big-ass bandit leader, clearly struggling, and you did jack shit! I can kind of understand leaving me alone for that first part, you left me alone for experience or discouragement of taking dangerous assignments, or whatever, but seriously! I thought you'd at least step in _when I was about to die!_

When I find, you, you'd better be on the verge of death, 'cause there's literally no other excuse that I'd take for you doing nothing.

I pushed my way out of the hollow and into the forest, shielding my eyes from the harsh sunlight with my hand.

With Sharingan, I had memorised the exact path that I had taken with the Shunshin last night. I opted for the slower method of travel, tree hopping, rather than the Shunshin, to conserve my chakra in case I had to fight.

* * *

I walked into the area where the bandit camp was supposed to be. The entire camp was burned to the ground, only a few charred and destroyed structures were left of the bandit camp.

I turned my Sharingan on and sweeped the area for chakra signatures.

Nothing.

The bandit leader had probably fled, and Kurenai was nowhere to be found.

Okay… this was problematic.

I don't actually have very many tracking-oriented abilities. Other than the Sharingan, which could locate footprints and whatnot, there was really nothing that I could do.

I guess I should add 'tracking jutsu' onto the list of things that I need to get done when I get back to the village.

I walked through the ruined camp, my eyes scanning the entire environment for a clue of where Kurenai, or really, anyone was at this point.

There were several charred skeletons on the ground. I checked their structures against the ones that I remembered from the fight yesterday. Their skeletal structures matched the ones of the guys that I killed yesterday. No new confirmed dead people then.

Ah! There's a tiny bit of dried blood on the ground. That could be something. My eyes span around, looking for more blood.

There's a whole trail of the stuff on the ground, the blood trail starting from the tiny droplets to a whole mess of blood.

Frowning, I shut off the Sharingan I didn't need it to follow the trail anymore.

I followed the path that the blood drew on the ground. Lying on the ground was a body. I turned on my Sharingan for just a second to scan the body. It didn't match the skeletal structure of any of the bandits that I had fought yesterday. I didn't kill this one, or even fight him.

Following the trail, I found more and more bodies, all of them unfamiliar. From their muscle structure, I could tell that these guys had had at least some training as a shinobi. Probably Academy dropouts and genin-level nuke-nin. Some of them even looked to be low chunin-level, if I were to guess.

This is a really damn useful application of the Sharingan, being able to combine medical knowledge with it. If I had thought _at fucking all_ during yesterday's fight, I would have realised that the bandit leader was out of my league. Remembering the bandit leader's physique, my revised estimate for his strength level is somewhere around mid chunin-level.

There were actually quite a few bandits piled up, eighteen and counting, all of them were stronger than the ones that I had fought. I had gone up against the grunts. Someone else, likely Kurenai, had cleaned up the actually skilled bandits.

There was no way that this mission was a C-Rank. With this many ninja-level opponents, it was easily a B-Rank at this point. I went up against somewhere around a hundred bandits alone, a staggering number for a first mission. Remembering them, a few of them probably were genin-level, and one of them, the leader, was into the chunin-tier.

And now, there were nearly twenty more bandits, all of them having ninja training.

"You're… late," A laboured sort of speech came from below me as Kurenai materialised from a tree root. She had disguised herself with the Henge as a tree root, and without my Sharingan active, I hadn't caught it.

"Kurenai-sensei?" Damn it. I know I said that I wouldn't accept anything but near-death as an excuse for not helping me, but really?

Her entire body was covered in scratches and bruises. A few of her bones looked to be either broken or dislocated, and it appeared as though the only thing keeping her left arm attached was a combination of hastily wrapped bandages, ninja wire crappily re-purposed for stitches, and prayers.

"The hell happened to _you?"_

"There were… quite a few more bandits than the mission scroll had said. They were a lot more skilled too. There were genin and chunin tier enemies. This should have a mission that an entire squad of chunin should have handled."

I was silent as I contemplated. This was a perfect chance for me to make my getaway. Kurenai was weakened, there was no way that she'd be able to put up a proper fight in this state. I could kill her, bathe the whole area in fire, and the village wouldn't even realise that I had run away.

But did I want to?

I wouldn't last a week outside the village walls. I almost died from _bandits_ of all things. Albeit, these were stronger than the average bandits, but still. If I had learned anything from this experience, it was that I wasn't strong enough.

But, if I laid low in some obscure village… ?

No. What if the village was raided by bandits of the same calibre that I had seen today? It wouldn't protect me from the Infinite Tsukuyomi either.

So I'd have to make it back to the village, and train my way up to a level that would allow me to survive outside Konoha.

But would I have another chance? This was a perfect opportunity. If I refused to take this one, would I have another chance? How else could I escape the Uchiha Massacre?

Or would I even have to escape it in the first place? I'm an extra character, someone who exists outside the realm of canon. Could I change things so that the Uchiha Massacre didn't happen in the first place?

Shisui.

He was the key.

Shisui planned to use his Kotoamatsukami to change the Uchiha clan's mind. The only reason that he hadn't carried through with it was because Danzo stole his eye before he could do it.

Shisui's plan was unethical, involving brainwashing his entire family. If I changed events so that Shisui actually succeeded, I would forever have to shoulder the guilt of knowing that I had taken part in brainwashing the clan.

But who the fuck cared?

I would live, right? And I got to enjoy the benefits of having a clan, with the political and monetary support.

It was decided then.

I knelt to the ground and ran a diagnostic jutsu on Kurenai. With her injuries laid out before me, I used the medical education that I had been given to fix her up a bit. It was a patch job, that was for certain, but at least she would live until we made it to the village.

Just thinking about the village put a cold smirk on my face.

I had caused ripples before, certainly. With Kiba becoming a significantly more tame kid after I brutalised him, and with Indra.

But this, by far, would be the largest ripple that I would send through the Narutoverse.

Here was where I would start truly fucking with canon.

* * *

 _A/N: Man, these things keep ending prematurely. I had another thing that I was going to include, but that felt like a good place to end it, so I guess I'll have to include that stuff in the next chapter._

 _Alrighty, so question time. I'm wondering about a certain passage I read on the wiki page for the Mangekyou:_

" _Also, they no longer suffer any negative side-effects from using them, even reducing chakra-draining to an unnoticeably minimal level."_

 _The passage is referring to the boosts one gets from obtaining the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan. If I'm interpreting the passage correctly, that means that there's basically no chakra drain from using the Eternal Mangekyou? Why didn't every character that had an EMS just keep it active all the time then? This seems a little bullshitty to me. Several reviewers in the past just said that Kishimoto just started pulling stuff out of his ass when it came to the Sharingan, especially the Mangekyou, so I shouldn't bother trying to rationalise the stuff. But still, effectively infinite Mangekyou time? Really? Should I even use that? It seems a bit broken._

 _akasuna123: I thought that I made it clear that the bandit leader that hit Kyouki last chapter was trained in the ninja arts? I gave him jutsu, fast movements, and had Kyouki incorrectly estimate his strength level to be high genin to low chunin, it's just Kyouki overestimated himself and got his ass kicked. Sorry if the strength level of the bandit leader wasn't clear, I meant for him to be a sort of a mid-tier nuke-nin type character._

 _Some Guy In An Ambulance: WIth the Sharingan, I'm working on a way to rationalise all the Mangekyou crap so that things can be at least semi-coherent with it in the fic. I'll probably throw it in later. I've been told that rationalising the Mangekyou and its ability is a hopeless endeavour, but I have hope! I'll have to make some stuff up, but that basically what all of fanfiction is, making stuff up around a series._

 _Good catch with the bandits. I never really thought of them being just peasants, but now that you mention it, yeah the majority of them probably were peasants. At least in this bandit camp, a bunch of them received ninja training, so yeah? Maybe? I tried to rationalise the kunai and stuff in this chapter by saying that quite a few of them received training, but I also made it so that Kyouki had fought the grunts, so yeah… I'll try to make the bandits more consistent in the future._

 _And as for keeping the Uchiha around, thanks for that idea._


	10. Chapter 10

_Disclaimer: I own nothing. This is purely for entertainment purposes, and I am making no profit off of this._

* * *

Luckily, the trip back was clear of bandits, and we made it back to Konoha without incident. Kurenai was still heavily injured, and in no condition to fight, or even to move. I had to carry her all the way. The return trip was greatly shortened though, with my use of the Shunshin. On the way to the bandit camp, I hadn't used the Shunshin to save chakra, but on the way back, I didn't have to fight anyone, so I sped us along with Shunshin jumps.

While we were on the road, I went over the list of things that I had to do.

I had to incorporate Mangekyou abilities into fighting style, proceed to train my ass off, run probably one or two more C-Ranks to gauge my progress, take the chunin exams if there was time, then help Shisui brainwash the entire clan.

I had about a year and a half to do all that before Shisui made his move.

It'll be a tight fit.

I walked through the gates of the village, nodding to the guard chunin, who gawked at us. We probably were quite a sight, with Kurenai's heavily injured form on my back, and my crappy patch job on my eyes.

Really, I looked almost like Kakashi now, with a scar running over my eye. Granted, it was significantly smaller than Kakashi's scar, only running one or two centimetres above and below my eye. Thanks to the genjutsu I had placed on the bandit leader, and my Fujin, I had only received a small cut.

I shifted Kurenai around on my back. The only reason that I could carry her at all was my enhanced strength that came from being a ninja. Her feet dragged on the ground behind me, which was probably rather uncomfortable for her.

I made the hand seals for the Shunshin-

Actually add that to the list of shit to do. Gotta get the Shunshin sealless. That'll be useful as hell.

-and we appeared in front of the hospital. I barged into the lobby, drawing quite a bit of attention. The receptionist immediately called for medics and within seconds, iryo-nin appeared in the lobby and carried Kurenai away.

Alright, now that that's done, I gotta go do a mission report and head back home. I'll visit Kurenai in a day or two.

I prepared to head to the mission office to deliver a report, when an iryo-nin called out.

"Where are _you_ going?"

"... to the mission office?"

"Absolutely not! You need medical attentio-"

"I don't, and even if I did, I have a perfectly capable iryo-nin back home."

The iryo-nin that Fugaku had hired for me was a private medic, an Uchiha, actually, and as such, was loyal to the Uchiha clan rather than Konoha. Usually Uchihas were ninja out on the front lines, but there are always outliers.

Because of their status as a private medic, they weren't required to report their medical procedure and their findings to the village. Normal iryo-nin weren't allowed to report Kekkei Genkai, a law passed to pacify the clans, but Fugaku, was a paranoid bastard. He had explicitly told me not to use the village's iryo-nin.

I walked out the hospital, ignoring the protesting iryo-nin.

You know, this is probably the reason why most people thought the Uchiha were stuck-up assholes.

* * *

The next day, after I had sufficiently rested, I began think of training.

Hm. What's on the list of things to do?

Let's start with incorporating the Mangekyou moves into my fighting style. My Mangekyou abilities, in stark contrast to the ones displayed in the series, were rather weak, with low chakra usage and more subtle applications.

How do I make the most of those applications?

With Dodomeki, I dismissed it in the beginning because I thought it would be ineffective as a stealth method. But, I could cast Dodomeki and random weapons, people, and objects during a fight to throw people off. The more skilled ninja would be able to feel the air disturbance that kunai and shuriken generated, even when they were invisible. To counter that, I would use Dodomeki on senbon, the smallest and thinnest of the weapons, thus the ones that created the least wind.

I could randomly use Dodomeki on the ground and trees and stuff. It was always disorientating to look down and see yourself standing on nothing. I remember in my old life, there was that glass bridge in China that was positively terrifying.

For Fujin, the application was obvious. I should have been using it from the beginning. I could use the teleportation for little adjustments in my position. That would have saved my old eyes.

For Funayurei, the flooding genjutsu, the usage of it wasn't too obvious. It was good for distractions, maybe a bit of disorientation and/or confusion, but that was about it.

Jubokko, the flower growing one, was the ability that I was, by far, the most excited for. I discovered, after fiddling around with it for a little bit, that I could make the flower grow in peculiar ways. Everything had to be more or less proportional to the normal flower, but I found that, because I controlled everything about the growth of the flower, could make some things grow abnormally.

Such as flowers whose petals continually fell off. I would grow the flower, the petals would fall off, I would grow them back instantly, and within moments, the entire place would be filled with flower petals.

But the part about that that I was most excited about was the pollen. I could make the flower continually produce pollen in extreme excess.

Oh you might be laughing now, but around twenty percent of the population was allergic to pollen.

Statistically, that means that one in five shinobi would turn into sneezing, water-eyed messes the minute I filled the battlefield with pollen.

Of course, it wouldn't be an instant win should I get at shinobi with allergies, but it would definitely help a lot.

Oh yeah, did I mention that pollen is flammable?

Because it is.

Very flammable.

And, when in large enough quantities, it was potentially explosive. Thirty-seven kilograms of pollen, when burnt, was roughly equal to a quarter tonne of TNT.

I would never have to carry explosive tags ever again.

Well, I would, because it's not very chakra-efficient to produce that much pollen. Even though the ability normally didn't cost too much, when making enough pollen that it weighed about as much as I did, it started to put a strain on both my eyes and my chakra reserves.

Even outside of pollen, there were a multitude of ways that I could use Jubokko could be used. If I got my hands on the seeds of the poisonous flowers, I would never have to pay for poisons ever again.

Really, any flower with medicinal properties, I could grow.

Of course, to use Jubokko to its fullest potential, I would have to carry seeds everywhere, and also be able to identify various flowers and their uses.

Which is why I was heading to the Yamanaka flower shop.

Here's a fact that wasn't shown in the TV program: the Yamanaka flower shop sold the dangerous variety of plants too.

Oh, they did it in the back, outside the eye of the civilian shoppers, and you had to give them your shinobi ID for them to let you through. A fact that most people forgot about the friendly flower shop owners was that they were a _ninja_ clan.

A ninja clan that provided ninja services.

Normally clients didn't actually buy the poisonous flowers themselves, instead preferring to purchase the prepared poisons that were already extracted from the flowers.

There were some specialty clients though, who had their own special mixes of poisons, and their own methods of preparing the poisons. They were the ones that actually bought the flowers.

I walked into the shop, the smell of flowers hitting me right away. I walked to the counter, where Ino was busy arranging flowers. She was so engrossed in her task, that she didn't even notice me approach.

"Excuse me."

Ino jumped, her fingers knocking knocking around the flowers, messing with their arrangement.

"The hell! Who even… "

Ino looked up and saw me. Whatever she was about to say died in her throat, and her eyes clouded with nervousness.

…

She was there for the day that I beat up Kiba, right?

She probably thinks that I'm a monster or something.

…

Well, she's not _wrong_ necessarily…

Whatever. I run through the smiles that I have stored from that one time I creepily watched people. Let's go with… small polite smile number three. That one will probably work.

"Hello. I'm looking make my purchases in the _back,"_ I held up my ID for her to see.

It looked as though my smile had marginally calmed her down.

"O-of course. Right t-this wa-ay."

Marginally.

Very marginally.

Dammit. I need to work on my social interaction skills.

* * *

I ended up buying a flower manual along with my flowers. I figured that I'd need it for figuring out which flower was which. It was a useful skill to have anyways. I could have just used my Sharingan and memorised the whole manual instead of actually paying for it, but I felt that would come across as a rude gesture, if not thievery. I had the money for it anyways.

Or rather, the _clan_ had the money for it.

I also bought a bunch normal flowers, in seed packets, both for some variation, and because I figured that I could go give them to Kurenai when I visited her in the hospital.

The minute I got home, I went to one of the Uchiha training grounds. There, I ripped open a seed packet and shook out a single seed.

Which flower is this?

I read the label on the seed packet: Moondust Carnation.

Yeah…

Maybe I should've read the flower manual first.

I activated my Sharingan and sped through the manual. The thing described the flowers themselves, providing drawings, their anatomies, uses, and how to take care of them. I didn't really need that last one, as I never really had to take care of my flowers. Why bother to water them when you could use your magical eyeball instead?

Alrighty, moondust carnation, here we go!

I activated my Sharingan. My eyes spin into the pinwheels of the Mangekyou, and I focused on the seed.

 _Jubokko_

It was kind of surreal, how the flower grew. The plant sprang up at an alarming speed, immediately blooming into a large purple flower.

I shook a couple more seeds out of the packet into my hand. I tossed the seeds into the air and glared at them with my Mangekyou, watching as they filled the air with large purple flowers.

I can work with this.

* * *

I walked into the hospital carrying a bouquet of flowers that I had grown myself with Jubokko. I was rather proud of myself. I went through the non-poisonous flowers that I had, selecting the ones that I thought looked rather nice.

I ended up putting together a pretty nice looking bouquet. At least, _I_ thought it looked pretty nice. The colours went well together, I think.

I walked up to the receptionist and put on charming smile number two, "Hello. I'm visiting Yuhi Kurenai?"

The receptionist glanced up at me, "Name and reason for visit?"

"I'm Uchiha Kyouki, and Yuhi-san is my sensei."

The receptionist shuffled through some files. After just a few seconds of looking she glanced up, "Clear. She's in room 204B."

Alrighty then. There was a helpful little map of the hospital posted on the wall for visitors. I activated my Sharingan and scanned the map for 204B, finding it not even a tenth of second later. I stuffed the bouquet of flowers into one of the storage seals on my bandages. With my hands free, I made the hand seals for the Shunshin.

I whizzed through the hospital, arriving at the door to Kurenai's room. With a puff of smoke, I unsealed my flowers. I knocked on the door.

An iryo-nin opened the door for, blinking when she saw me. She smiled and waved me in, "Come in! Come in!"

Kurenai's voice, sounding significantly better than it did a day or two ago rang out, "Who is it?"

I walked into the room, waving at her.

She blinked, "Kyouki?"

"The one and only."

She blinked a few more times, as if to make sure that I was really there.

"Surprised?" I asked.

"If I'm to be entirely honest, yeah. I didn't think you were the type of person to visit."

Well, normally I wouldn't. There are better things that I could be doing. But, fostering relations is never a bad thing. I could always use connections, and it was best to have a good relationship with the one responsible for most of your training.

"Well, here I am," I shrugged, "I brought flowers."

Kurenai seemed even more surprised, her expression bordering on shock, " _Really_ now?"

"Yes…? What of it?"

She shook her head, "No. Nothing."

"Okay…?"

I handed her the bouquet, and she took the flowers gently.

She looked at the flowers, and her eyes widened. She just stared at them in open shock for a few seconds. Then she burst out laughing.

"What?"

Kurenai just kept laughing, taking loud, gasping breaths between convulsions.

" _What?"_ I repeated.

Finally, Kurenai calmed down enough to make coherent sentences, "You never studied flower arrangements in the Academy, huh?"

"No…?"

"Allow me to educate you a bit," She pointed a dark red flower, "This one symbolises hatred."

No. Really?

She pointed at another, "This one symbolises nightmares and fear."

 _Really?_

"This one symbolises pain, this one represents anger, and this one, anguish. The white one over there is a symbol of regret and this one over here symbolises the loss of will to push on in the face of cosmic nihilism."

Okay. _Okay._ The first ones I could kind of believe, but really? That last one? _Really?_ She was just screwing with me now.

"You're totally screwing with me."

"You wanna bet on that?"

"... No," I admit defeat.

How the _hell_ did I pick out such terrible flowers? I just put in the ones that I thought looked nice!

Man, now I gotta go _back_ to the Yamanaka flower shop to pick up a book on flower arranging and stuff.

* * *

 _A/N: For the Mangekyou thing, keeping it active all the time, I guess the opinion is that the chakra cost should be low for the EMS, but keeping it active all the time would either cause eye strain or would overload the brain with information eventually. Works, I guess._

 _MrTicklesMMM: I actually didn't think of reusing the Izanagi to recycle dead Sharingan, but I'm not certain that it'd work for all situations. With the mother's eyes, there was something that Kyouki could work off of. The eyes hadn't fully decayed, and he had observed what they were like in full working order with his Mangekyou. The eyes have to be at least relatively intact, and he has to know what he's doing. If the Uchiha he grave robs is entirely rotten, and there's nothing left but the skeleton, there's not much he can do. At least, that's my interpretation._

 _I think using Izanagi to revive former Hokages is a bit of a stretch too, for the same reasons. Body has to be relatively intact and he has to know what he's doing._

 _Some Guy In An Ambulance: I was thinking the exact same thing with poisonous flowers. Hit the nail on the head, you did. I didn't think of the opioids though. That could certainly be a really interesting plot point in the future._

 _I should probably world-build more too. The quote you included reminded me of that._

 _Ashborn2271: Yeah, the Susanoo'll be introduced in a later chapter, probably either the next one or the one after that. I couldn't find a good place to mention it up until now._

 _The-Funeral-Pyre: I was under the impression that the Mangekyou abilities were more or less random? Some of them were shared, like Sasuke and Itachi both having Amaterasu. Genjutsu is also one that's common between eyes, with Tsukuyomi and_ _Kotoamatsukami. So, I tried to have genjutsu in both sets of eyes, unbreakable ones. The other ones in canon were all over the place though. Amaterasu, Kamiu, that telekinesis thingy that Uchiha Shin had, there didn't seem to be a connection between them. Unless I'm missing something?_


	11. Chapter 11

_Disclaimer: I own nothing. This is purely for entertainment purposes, and I am making no profit off of this._

* * *

What do you know? That one flower actually _did_ represent the loss of will to push on in the face of cosmic nihilism.

This raises quite a few questions…

Anyways, what do I have left to integrate into my fighting style before I start throwing myself into repetitive training?

Well, there's still the Susanoo, which I haven't touched yet. I haven't really messed around with it, because my chakra reserves were nowhere near the amount necessary to form any stage of the Susanoo.

Now, however, I'm confident that I'll be able to manifest the ribcage at the very least.

My Sharingan activated, the three tomoe design spinning into the black pinwheels of the Mangekyou.

 _Susanoo_

Ah, Jesus, _fuck_ that hurt!

An ethereal collection of ribs, backed by a section of spin formed a protective shield around me. Blazing chakra filled in the air around the bones. My Susanoo was…

Really?

The rib cage was a pastel pink colour.

…

That's just the rib cage, right? The thing will darken when I manifest more of it, right? I'm hoping for a nice, scary, red Susanoo.

I dismissed my Susanoo. That thing, even though I had only manifested the first stage, the most basic Susanoo, had sucked away quite a bit of chakra. Around a tenth of my entire reserves, and I hadn't even kept the thing active for ten seconds. The thing hurt like nothing else too

Obviously, I would have to work on it. Maybe later, there are more pressing things to train with.

Before I even began training, I saw a flash of chakra out of the corner of my eye. I still had my Mangekyou on, and my eye flickered over. It was Shisui, coming out of a Shunshin. Perfect. I was meaning to talk to him eventually anyways.

"Ah, my apologies, Kyouki-san. I just noticed a rather large chakr-"

I put on polite smile number four, "Don't lie to me Shisui."

"... I'm sorry?"

"You saw. You _knew._ Don't pretend like you didn't know what was happening."

"Kyouki-san?"

"You saw it didn't you? That's what caught your attention."

"I'm not certain I know what you're referring-"

"The Susanoo, Shisui. The Susanoo."

Shisui reacted only slightly to the mention of the Susanoo. I wouldn't have caught his slight expression of surprise had my Mangekyou not been active.

"Ah, so you _did_ know. You're one of the few people in this clan that can manifest it, after all. It would only make sense that sensing another would catch your attention."

"Ah, my apologies, Kyouki-san. I didn't mean-"

"Save your breath, Shisui. There are more important things we should be discussing."

Shisui was silent.

"The Kotoamatsukami, Shisui. You-"

Shisui's Sharingan activated and he immediately blurred into action. His Shunshin was… perfect. He certainly deserved his title as Shisui of the Shunshin. It was sealless, and faster than anything I've ever seen.

And it was mine now.

I still had my Sharingan active.

I do believe that mastering the Shunshin was on my list of things to do? I can check that one off the list.

Shisui held the tip of his sword at my throat. I noticed that there were multiple Shisuis, all of which were also pointing their swords at me.

"How did you find out?"

"Put that sword down, Shisui. We both know that you won't kill me. It's not in your nature. And don't you dare use that damn genjutsu on me. There are more important things you should be using it for."

Shisui narrowed his eyes and sheathed his sword. He looked at me expectantly.

"We have a clan to save."

Shisui was instantly more alert than he was before, if that was even possible. He was already rather on edge.

"The coup, is very much an issue. Only you can put an end to the bubbling discontent from the Uchiha."

Shisui stared at me. I could see a tiny bit of chakra shoot out from the forest and touch him. He turned to the direction that the chakra came from. A message probably.

He spoke up, "I have to leave. We will continue this discussion at a later date. Signal me with your Susanoo when you are available once more. If I am in the village, I will come."

I favoured him with a shallow nod, "Of course. For the clan, and the village."

"For the village, and the clan," He agreed. He Shunshin'd away.

There was a start. Things were in motion now.

* * *

"... and this one means happiness, and this one means quick recovery, and this one means friendship!" I showed off my new flower bouquet to Kurenai, having put together a better one after reading up on the symbolism of flowers.

Well, 'better' is a subjective term. I still think that my first bouquet, the one with all the flowers with depressing symbolisms, looked way cooler than this one. But, since flower arrangements and symbolisms were picky, weird, and strangely specific, the arrangement I made this time looked to be of a rather… poor aesthetic.

Maybe I'll just _buy_ a premade bouquet instead of being cheap and trying to make my own.

"I didn't think you'd actually read up on flower symbolisms. Colour me impressed."

"I'm full of surprises."

Kurenai considered me for a moment, "Of course you are."

My seal 'watch' flared. That meant that it was around two in the afternoon. Time to go train.

I stood up a waved goodbye to Kurenai, "See you tomorrow."

I headed to the training grounds. Just because my sensei was currently in the hospital didn't mean that I could just skip my training.

I arrived in the Training Ground Nineteen.

Let's play with that Shunshin, yeah?

I recalled the memory from last night, Shisui's absolutely flawless Shunshin. I activated my Sharingan. I moulded my chakra in exactly the same way that-

 _Woah!_

I flew across the clearing at a ridiculous speed. Despite having only used the Shunshin for a fraction of a second, the sheer speed of the thing was ridiculous, especially using Shisui's ridiculously fast version. Even with the Mangekyou Sharingan active, I could barely even perceive my movement at this speed.

I would have to get used to Shisui's Shunshin. This sort of speed required a deeper understanding of the movements, as well as experience and instincts to along with it. I couldn't just rely on the Mangekyou to cheese the Shunshin with this one.

Well, I could, sort of, but not nearly to the extent that I had with the normal Shunshin.

With this Shunshin, I could also use a sword, and really all forms of weaponry effectively. Without the need to use hand seals, my hands were free to hold whichever weapons I wished.

I sent a bunshin to the other end of the clearing. Just a normal, genjutsu one. I drew a straight sword, a chokuto. Gathering my chakra, I performed the Shunshin and rocketed across the clearing. I was aiming for where the clone's heart would have been had they been a real person.

I missed, shooting way off to the side of the clone, crashing into a tree on the far end of the clearing. I shakily stood back up and dusted myself off. My hand glowed green with the Mystic Palm as I began to fix tiny cuts and bruises.

I've got a lot of work to do.

I Shunshin'd around for the rest of the afternoon, only stopping when the sun set. Not because it was getting dark, but because my chakra levels were beginning to dip.

My Shunshin still wasn't perfect, not quite like Shisui's. It would require probably weeks of further refinement and practise to even pose a challenge to Shisui. But it was a start, and a damn good one.

* * *

I spent the next week or so training with the Shunshin and my various weapons, both training with them separately, and using the weapons in tandem with the Shunshin.

I noticed while training that the amount of chakra that my Mangekyou drained was significantly less than what it was before. I hardly noticed a strain anymore with the Sharingan. I guess that the Eternal Mangekyou implant made things more efficient.

I wouldn't keep the thing active all the time, really, just to fit in. But on missions, it couldn't hurt to keep it active for at least most of the time.

I'm not sure why I'd need any other jutsu, once I got the Shunshin down. For most cases, at least. The Shunshin was just so broken, at least at Shisui's level. Once I got everything down, which would just require more training and experience with the jutsu, and basically be able to win nearly every fight.

It would just take some practise.

Actually, a lot more practise than I had first realised. I hadn't quite appreciated the amount of work that Shisui put into his Shunshin. It would take much longer than 'a few weeks of practise' in order to even come _close_ to Shisui's level. I hadn't even added the afterimage clone part of the thing, and it was already difficult.

Speaking of Shisui, I was planning on meeting him again.

I stood in a different training ground than I had been in when I met with Shisui the first time. I figured that it would at least help in not being detected if we met in a different clearing each time.

I looked up. The moon and stars shone brightly in Konoha's unpolluted sky. The lack of industrial progress had made for a clear and beautiful night sky. As an Uchiha, the moon held a deeper meaning for me than most people. Pretty much family, those guys were.

I turned my focus back to the clearing.

My Sharingan activated and span into pinwheels.

 _Susanoo._

The ridiculous pink rib cage formed a barrier around me. My Sharingan caught a flicker of chakra, and I turned to my left. Shisui stared at me. He was more confident this time. I had caught him off guard the last time we met. Now, we were on more even footing.

"You know, instead of having this convoluted system of signalling we could just have, I don't know, talked to each other? Normally?"

"If we were seen speaking to each other, then if one of us were caught conspiring against the clan, there might be the suspicion that the other is in as well."

"Yeah, but I mean, isn't there any better way of signalling?"

"The Susanoo has a powerful and easily recognisable chakra signature, that only I would recognise. And you, I suppose, if you had any chakra sensing jutsu."

"Hn," I gave him the Uchiha grunt.

Shisui was silent for a moment, considering his words.

After an almost uncomfortably long silence, he spoke, "How did you know?"

I cocked my head at him.

"The coup. You're far too young to be sitting in on the counsels. And my Mangekyou, Kotoamatsukami. How?"

I cocked my head at him. I paused for dramatic effect.

"There is, Shisui, a realm outside of the plane in which we exist."

I walked towards him slowly. The Mangekyou, already active from performing the Susanoo to signal Shisui, span in their sockets and _flared._

 _Funayurei_

Water began to stream in from all sides. Alarmed, Shisui activated his Sharingan.

Funayurei was an unbreakable genjutsu though, like all Mangekyou genjutsu were, so his Sharingan couldn't pierce through the illusionary water.

 _Jubokko_

I had spread dandelion seeds all around the clearing before Shisui had arrived. Normally a multitude of any kind of seed would arouse suspicion, especially for someone like Shisui, who'd notice them right away.

But, it was around that time of year where the fucking things were _everywhere._ So, a bit more seeds in one spot would hardly make anyone alarmed.

The yellow dandelions began to poke through the surface of the water, their heads swaying violently in an imaginary wind.

Shisui's Sharingan swiveled wildly in their sockets, trying to take everything in and evaluate whether or not they were a threat.

Shisui's eyes narrowed at me, "I'm not sure what genjutsu this is, but release me."

Interesting. He found out. It was rather obvious, after all. But since genjutsu that were specific to the Mangekyou, like Tsukuyomi, Dodomeki, and indeed, Funayurei, were unbreakable save for very specific circumstances, there was nothing he could do about it. And, there was no way that he could prove it either.

"This isn't a genjutsu, Shisui. It's a piece of the fractured reality that we live in," A lie, but I like screwing with people, and it'll be a reasonable explanation for my knowledge of the future.

"What?"

"Do you know what lurks in the depths of these waters, Shisui?"

Shisui knelt in the shallow water that I had summoned, "There is nothing. This water is far to shallow for anything to inhabit it."

I cocked my head at him.

And the water raised.

Shisui's eyes widened as the water that fooled even his Sharingan rose higher, encasing his lower body in fake, icy cold water.

That's what I like about Funayurei compared to Dodomeki. It was complete with both touch and sound, so that people would be able to feel the icy cold of Funayurei, and hear the lapping of its waves.

The grew the dandelions further. Their stems grew far thicker than any ordinary dandelion could become, and they twisted and grew around one another, forming treelike structures that dripped with the waters of Funayurei.

I jumped onto one of the flowers, grown far out of proportion with Jubokko, and gestured at Shisui to follow me. He hesitated for a moment, but followed. I sat down comfortably on the flower, Shisui slowly doing the same.

I waved my hand for dramatic effect, and the floor of water that we had been standing in suddenly swirled into a chaotic whirlpool.

"When one dives into the shadowy trenches of this flooded world, there are eldritch secrets to be discovered," My voice was hardly more than a raspy whisper at this point, "Never forget, Shisui, that some things were not meant for mortal eyes to see, or mortal ears to hear."

Man, I love unbreakable genjutsu.

"It was there, in the abyss, that I saw the threads of my fate. It was there, in the infinite depths of this accursed ocean, that I saw your fate, and the entire clan's."

I turned and looked right at Shisui, "We must change it."

Then, all of the dandelions wilted, crumpling, and dumped us back onto into the water, which was shallow once more. The water became more and more shallow, until it seemed to seep back into the ground. We had returned to the clearing.

"But I can't do it alone. My mortal body is weak, and I cannot change the course of fate by myself."

I reached my out to Shisui.

"Will you help me?"

Shisui's eyes span in a frenzy of movement, trying to make sense of what they had just witnessed. It wasn't a genjutsu, the 'infallible' Sharingan could see through it, after all. So when one has eliminated the impossible…

Shisui's hand gripped mine, "Of course."

* * *

 _A/N: And there's that! I think there's no issue with Shisui being fooled by Kyouki. I think._

 _The genjutsu that I've introduced with Kyouki's Mangekyou have the same mechanic as Itachi's Tsukuyomi, only being able to be broken by someone of the same blood. As Kyouki's parents both died, that means that his Mangekyou genjutsu are effectively unbreakable. So yeah…_

 _Fritosaurio_ _: Character pov will have to wait, I'm afraid. I couldn't find a place for it here. Rest assured however! There'll be an interlude from another character's point of view… sometime later._

 _Some Guy In An Ambulance: Thanks for pointing out that issue with Kyouki's everlasting stamina. I didn't actually mean for him to do everything in one go like that, so I went back and made a little adjustment._

 _Guest: Kyouki only used his Mangekyou abilities sparingly in the past, and it takes quite a bit of constant usage in order to actually go fully blind, which is why he hadn't noticed a significant deterioration in eyesight._

 _CorruptedDrake_ _: Sorry about that. I went back and fixed it to make it more clear that the flowers grew from the seeds. Thanks for pointing it out._


	12. Chapter 12

_Disclaimer: I own nothing. This is purely for entertainment purposes, and I am making no profit off of this._

* * *

Kurenai got out of the hospital about three weeks ago. We spent the time between then and now training mostly my auditory genjutsu up to an acceptable level. They were difficult, especially without a medium like a flute, but they were useful as hell. We figured that we would go grab a mission. We stopped by the mission office to grab another C-Rank mission. I wanted another bandit clearing mission because the last one went _so_ well.

No really, I'm not even kidding.

I've heard rumours that there was talk of Kurenai being promoted to a tokubetsu jounin. We were being talked about too, that last mission was _very_ impressive.

The last bandit clearing mission had been reclassified as a B-Rank mission, and it's absolutely incredible that a genin and a chunin had managed to complete it completely casualty-free, even if one of us was severely injured. Usually those missions are reserved for teams of chunin.

Problem is, though, that we didn't even get a choice when it came to our mission this time. The guys at the mission told us that the Hokage was assigning us a mission personally.

The Hokage met with most new genin teams for their first missions. Besides him actually enjoying meeting with the children, it fosters a sense of loyalty and respect when you personally meet the big boss. He couldn't give that sort of attention all of the time though, which is why he only personally assigned the first few.

Teams with exceptional potential, however, were given the special treatment of the Hokage when it came to mission assignments. Canon's Team Seven, for example, had their missions assigned to them personally by the Hokage, even the D-Ranks. Kurenai and I, on the other hand, got our mission from the mission office, which is where most ninja go.

The Hokage was giving us his personal attention, which meant that I now fit into the category of 'exceptional potential.'

"You will be escorting Maruyama-san and his family to Yugakure, in the Land of Hot Water," the Sandaime gestured to the slightly overweight man and his family, who were standing next to us.

"Hai, Hokage-sama," Kurenai said. She turned towards the clients, "We leave tomorrow. Meet us at the village gates at seven o'clock."

The clients nodded their understanding and left the room.

The Sandaime closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair, "Kurenai, you are dismissed. Kyouki," he opened his eyes and looked at me straight on, "Remain here. We have much to discuss."

...okay?

Kurenai bowed and began to leave, throwing a slightly worried look backwards at me, before she exited.

"Anbu, leave."

There was no sign of movement, or even any Anbu at all, which I suppose makes sense for the ones that make up the Hokage's personal guard. I might've been able to spot them had I activated my Sharingan, but I figured that this wasn't the time for that.

"Uchiha Kyouki…" the Hokage mused aloud. He leaned forwards, "The Uchiha's planned… 'coup.'"

I stiffened immediately.

So it was _that_ sort of conversation.

Frickin'... who spilled the beans? Was it Itachi, or was it Shisui?

It was Shisui, for sure. The Hokage wouldn't have wanted a conversation with me unless he knew from Shisui. Shisui was the only one who knew of my knowledge of the coup, and the only one who had witnessed my Susanoo, and genjutsu bullcrap. I suppose my appearance had pushed Shisui to tell the village authorities earlier.

"What about it?"

"Shisui has told me that you have a plan."

"...Yes?"

Shisui and I hadn't actually met again after the last time. I had tried to signal him with my Susanoo twice, but he hadn't responded. I guess he was outside the village on a mission or something. I suppose I had implied that I had a plan, though, in our brief meetings.

"I trust Shisui, and he trusts you," Hiruzen smoked on his pipe, gazing outwards with a thoughtful expression, "I will allow you two to carry on. I am trusting you both to quell the Uchiha rebellion before it even starts."

"Hai, Hokage-sama," I bowed and prepared to leave.

"I have not dismissed you yet, Kyouki."

Okay, then.

"This will be classified as an S-Rank mission. Failure is not an option, Kyouki. Do you understand?"

The Hokage stared right at me.

"Do _not_ disappoint me, Kyouki."

That seemed like a rather final statement. I wanted to leave, but seeing as how the Hokage still hadn't dismissed me. I stood in the Hokage's office, waiting for him to finish up.

"Shisui tells me that the Uchiha plan to rebel in eight months' time," the Hokage closed his eyes and took another deep puff from his pipe, "I am giving you seven months to quell the thoughts of rebellion in the clan. Should your mission not be completed within that time frame, I will be left no choice but to take care of the Uchiha in a decidedly more… _forceful_ manner."

Well damn.

"The stakes are high, Kyouki. I do not wish to eliminate the Uchiha any more than you do."

Hiruzen's lit with a cold, calculating fire. His chilling glare was leveled right at me, and I had to fight off the instinct to flinch.

" _Do you understand?"_

"Hai, Hokag-"

"Dismissed."

I made a hasty bow and quickly retreated.

* * *

I had less time than I thought. I had estimated that I had about a year and a half to stop the massacre.

I had only seven months.

Even still, that would be more than enough time. Shisui only needed a single night to brainwash the clan. The day that he got back would be the day that we started planning.

Of course, I had a C-Rank that I was leaving for in an hour, so really, we would start planning in whenever I got back.

I checked over my gear and supplies. This wasn't a quick bandit clearing mission. This mission would take around a week, perhaps longer, due to slow-ass civilian speed we would be travelling at. The length of the mission called for being more prepared.

Weapons?

Kunai, shuriken, senbon, explosive tags, and my chokuto blade would be what I would use should a combat situation arise. I had scrapped most of the rest of my weapons, like the kama, kusarigama, and the battle guitar...fan...thing, because I hardly used them.

Flowers?

With the newfound absence of the weapons, I had stuffed my storage seals with seeds. Flower seeds of every variety. I had poisonous ones, ones with paralysing qualities, and some of them were simply mundane flowers.

Food?

I had also brought a pack with me, in preparation for the longer trip. The pack was full to the brim with food. My food of choice were standard shinobi rations., Blocky, grey squares, packed to the brim with calories and nutrients. They were space-efficient, and they would sustain me.

They also lacked any taste.

Storage seals would have been a more efficient place to put my things, but the bandages that my storage seals were written upon were a poor conductor of chakra. Normally, seals were written on a special chakra-conductive paper, or, if the user was particularly skilled, the seals could be written with chakra itself.

However, my chosen medium was bandages, and while the inefficient seals were fine with most objects, they disagreed with organic matter, hence why I had to carry my rations in a pack.

The rest of my supplies were, thankfully, not made of organic material, and could be put into the storage seals.

My seal 'watch' flared.

It was six thirty. I shrugged and decided to leave. I would arrive at the gates about twenty minutes early if I decided to walk, which I would. I figured that I would enjoy the view.

It never hurt to be early, either.

A blonde boy, clad in the brightest, most orange outfit I've ever seen, ran by, laughing. He was being chased by several citizens, likely angry about some prank that he pulled.

Huh, I almost forgot about him. The main character of this series.

I wonder if I could implant his flesh into myself and get the Rinnegan?

* * *

Kurenai's voice sounded from below me, "Wake up, the clients will be here any minute."

I was instantly alert. Many a lecture had been spent on the importance of being fully awake as quickly as possible.

I peered upwards at the large gates of Konoha. I had gotten to the gates early and had chosen a nice spot in a tree near the gates to take a little nap before the mission.

I jumped down from my branch and brushed any wrinkles out of my clothes. The high collared Uchiha shirt with the clan symbol on the back had been irritating at first, but I had gotten used to it. I walked towards the gate and took my place by Kurenai's side.

And we waited.

The clients finally came, a minute and a half late.

Tsk. Tsk.

They came riding a wagon, which was drawn by oxen. I suppose it made sense. While us ninja could make it all the way to the Land of Hot Water on foot, civilians couldn't be expected to do the same.

"Are you ready to leave?" Kurenai asked.

"Of course!" The man, Mr...Maruyama, I believe? He seemed like a rather cheerful guy.

With a nod, Kurenai turned and, with a few words exchanged between her and the chunin guarding the gates, walked through the gateway. I followed her, and the wagon followed behind us.

It was only around two hours later into our trip, and I was already getting irritated. The client's kid was constantly whining loudly.

Sighing in annoyance, I activated my eyes. I looked backwards at the child. My movement caught his eye, and he looked right into my crimson Sharingan. I cast a tiny genjutsu on him.

Really nothing major, just a little thing that would accentuate the glow of my eyes, and make the shadow's just a _bit_ darker, and just a _little_ more looming, and contain just a _few_ more shadowy monsters.

The kid immediately shut up.

Ah, good. The kid was one of those kids who, instead of whining or screaming louder, would just shut up when confronted with something scary.

Thank goodness for small miracles.

I turned my attention back to the road in front of us, observing the environment with new clarity with my Sharingan activated. I immediately saw our tail in the forest.

I had noticed him about ten minutes ago. He had been following us for perhaps longer. Even when I noticed him, I did nothing, not wanting to alarm him and scare him away. He was probably a scout for one of the more powerful and well-trained bandit groups.

With my Sharingan, it was an easy task to watch for disturbances in the branches and leaves of the trees and predict his movements.

Several senbon coated in paralysing solution appeared in my hand. I snapped my hand to the right, and the thin needles flew exactly where I predicted that the bandit would be. A crash and a thud confirmed my hit.

I looked backwards at the alarmed clients, and then at Kurenai, who looked with dispassionate eyes at the spot in the forest where the bandit's fall had been heard. She had likely seen the bandit before as well.

"I'll go check it out," I announced, walking off the side of the road and stepping into the forest.

I sweeped the forest floor with my Sharingan, looking for the bandit. My eyes caught onto a chakra signature, and I walked towards it.

The bandit was there, and he stared up at me with terrified eyes. His movements were restricted by the paralysing solution on the senbon that had pierced him at various points.. I estimated that, from his build and chakra levels, he was either an Academy dropout, or a low-level genin. It justified his tree running, I guess.

I grabbed his face in my hands and put it directly in front of mine, forcing him to look into my eyes. The crimson glow of my eyes were his entire world now, and he was drowning in a sea of blood-red irises.

I grinned and slipped him an antidote to the paralysing solution, "Spill."

And so he did. With each word, my smile became wider and more inhuman. He finally finished speaking, slumping backwards in defeat.

"Oh, you've been such a help, but now I'm afraid… "

I drew a kunai, my grin even wider than before.

"... that you have run out of use."

I stained the ground red.

* * *

"They call themselves the Kazu. They're one of the more powerful bandit groups in the Land of Fire. They're hardly even a 'bandit group' really, more a loosely organised collection of allied camps. Lots of them have some ninja training too."

Kurenai digested the information that I had gotten from the bandit, "Do you have any idea of how powerful they are?"

"They have about half a dozen major camps, and a whole bunch of minor ones. The closest of their camps is about half a kilometre from here. That one has mostly civilian and low genin-level guys."

"How many?"

"About thirty."

Kurenai's eyes hardened, "Take them out."

I nodded and bowed, disappearing in a Shunshin. Over the last few weeks ago, I had also gotten pretty good at the Shunshin. I ended up bastardising Shisui's perfect creation and making it much slower. I learned about a week into training with it, that it would probably be more effective if I worked at slower speeds first. The fact that even my Mangekyou couldn't perceive my movement very well at the speed that Shisui's Shunshin was performed was testament to his skill. Working at slower speeds helped me gain familiarity with the jutsu, so that one day I'd be able to perform the thing and rely on my instincts and muscle memory to guide me.

For now though, I was working with a Shunshin that was only half the speed of the one that I copied from Shisui, which was still more than double the speed of the Shunshin I had been using before, and sealless. The speed that I was working with was a comfortable speed. I could go faster, but I wanted to be safe.

I appeared on a branch that jutted out of a tree just outside of the camp borders. I observed the bandits below me, milling about.

I drew a kunai from the seal on my glove and attached a low-grade explosive seal to it. I threw the kunai off into the forest. It detonated, creating a moderately loud noise. The bandits jumped at the noise and drew their weapons.

I put my hands to my mouth and imitated a bird call. My vocal chords, saturated with chakra, would vibrate and create a sound that would carry a genjutsu. My skill with auditory genjutsu was finally high enough that I could do this sort of thing.

The genjutsu targeted some of the bandits. It planted a small suggestion in their minds, pushing them to figure out what the explosion was. I would separate them, and take them out as small units rather than trying to take on all of them at once.

I _could_ engage them all and win, but I wanted to do everything using as few resources as possible. That was why I used the low grade explosive tag instead of just throwing a standard explosive tag into the middle of the camp. Perhaps I was being overly paranoid, but I wanted to have some supplies and chakra in case there was something later on in the trip.

Eight of the thirty bandits split off from the main group to investigate the noise. As they passed by my tree, I began to tail them from up high. When they got far enough away from the main group, I activated my Sharingan and dropped down from the trees.

I drew two shuriken and threw them while I was descending. Both of them hit their intended targets in the throat, and the two bandits dropped to the ground, gurgling on their own blood.

Six left.

I drew a kunai and fell right on top of another bandit, slitting his throat.

Five left.

A barrage of senbon flew out of my hands and struck the rest of the bandits. The poison that the senbon were coated in quickly kicked in, and the remaining bandits dropped dead.

Zero left.

With no more enemies in sight, I deactivated my Sharingan. I made seven of the normal, illusionary clones. Searching through my perfect, Sharingan aided memories, I applied Henges to all of my clones to make them in the likeness of seven of the bandits that I had murdered. I took the place of the eighth one myself.

With my clones, I began to walk back to the bandits' encampment.

"Hey, get over here!" I had reached the border of the camp. My clones and I remained somewhat in the forest to conceal the fact that the clones had no shadows.

"What? Did you find anything?"

"Yeah! Some dumbass ninja in the forest! They blew themselves up with one of those jutsu, and they're all injured. If we hurry, we might be able to catch 'em for the bounties!"

The bandit I had talked to grinned and waved to the bandits behind him.

"C'mon, you hear that boys? There's a _bounty_ to collect!"

The bandits began following me and my clones. In the forest, we split up, the clones leading half of the in one direction while I lead them in another. I replaced each of the missing bandits in each group with a rough bunshin. They wouldn't hold up to close scrutiny, but right now, when no one was concerned, everything was fine.

When we had gone a sufficient ways away from the other half of the bandits, I stopped. I turned around and did a head count. There were thirteen bandits with me. The split in half hadn't quite been equal, resulting in more bandits being in this group, and less in the other. There should be nine in the group lead by my bunshin then.

"Why are we stopping?" One of the bandits asked.

I grinned at him, "Who knows?"

I unsealed a few senbon from my storage seals.

"What are you-"

I threw the senbon at the bandits, killing the one that had been speaking and two others. Drawing a kunai I quickly dashed into the group of bandits, slitting their throats gleefully as I ran by them. Within seconds, all thirteen of them were lying on the forest floor, dead. They hadn't even gotten to draw their weapons. It wouldn't have mattered anyways. These bandits were lower level fighters, using mostly farming tools for weapons, rather than the shinobi weapons that the more trained bandits wielded.

Taking one last glance backwards at the dead bodies, I jumped into the trees, tracking the other group of bandits. After a few minutes of tree-hopping, I found them following my clones in another part of the forest.

I was getting impatient, so I forewent any real planning or pre-battle genjutsu, instead choosing to activate my Sharingan and jump right into it.

With the Sharingan, I saw that, based on their chakra signatures and muscle structure, this group of bandits were mostly low genin-level, likely Academy dropouts, in comparison to the other group, who were mostly civilian-level.

With their training, they managed to react quickly enough to actually sling some kunai and shuriken at me. I dodged some of the thrown weapons, and deflected others with my own kunai.

I unsealed kunai and shuriken from my seals, throwing them all in a barrage of steel. Only a few of them actually hit their marks, downing three bandits.

That wasn't an issue, hitting them wasn't exactly the primary goal anyways. I had attached ninja wire to the back of the kunai and shuriken and applied Dodomeki to them. Ninja wire was basically invisible anyways, but its metallic nature made it glint harshly in the light. A cheap application of Dodomeki was all it took to really mask their presence.

I pushed a bit of chakra through the string and _pulled._

The strings swung around, the weapons at their ends acting as weights to pull them. The wire wrapped around all of the bandits, entrapping them in a mess of steel wires.

The fight was basically over, so I deactivated my Sharingan.

I pulled again.

The strings, enforced with chakra, cut through flesh with ease, cutting the bandits into pieces and spraying blood everywhere.

That's all of them I guess. I completed the objective relatively efficiently, with minimal resource loss on my part. All I had used in terms of weapons were things that I had tons of, kunai, shuriken, senbon, and wire. I hadn't used any expensive jutsu, genjutsu, for the most part, costed little in terms of chakra, so my reserves were more or less topped off.

Excellent.

I did a quick body count of the bandits to confirm the completion of the objective before I left.

I counted eight heads on the ground.

There were supposed to be nine.

I activated my Sharingan and checked again.

There was a miniscule disturbance in the ground. It was a characteristic of an amateur performing the Hiding Like a Mole jutsu. Normally the jutsu would leave no trace on the ground, but when an inexperienced user used the jutsu, sometimes they'd make mistakes like this.

One of them had gotten away. They got away when I deactivated my Sharingan, believing that the battle was already won.

I went and followed the disturbances in the ground. It only went a short way into the forest, just outside of my visual range from my previous position. The trail went cold, and I couldn't see any chakra signatures out in the forest.

They had probably Shunshin'd away.

Dammit.

* * *

 _momo: I thought Amaterasu was an ability specific to certain Mangekyou? Only those with the Amaterasu specifically as one of their Mangekyou abilities could use it, I thought?_

 _Some Guy In An Ambulance: I was hoping that somebody would notice that. It was just a little detail that showed the difference in priorities between the two of them._


	13. Chapter 13

_Disclaimer: I own nothing. This is purely for entertainment purposes, and I am making no profit off of this._

* * *

I ran in the trees, weapons at the ready. Kurenai was walking next to the clients' wagon. I was to be the first line of defence, Kurenai being ready to defend should it be needed.

I was following a few civilian-level chakra signatures on the forest floor, eyeing their clumsy navigation through the forest, I calculated my next moves.

I jumped off of the tree branch that I was on, dropping down on top of the bandits. I drew a pair of shuriken in a puff of smoke and threw them. They both hit their marks on two of the bandits' necks.

I had attached ninja wire to the shuriken. With a pull, the shards of metal came loose and were flung through the air, both piercing the necks of two more bandits. This mission was my trial run for the wire, and it was proving to be rather useful. I think I'll keep it in my arsenal.

With four of them dead, there was only one bandit left alive. He was backing away from me, his weapon, a repurposed farming tool, was shakily pointed at me. I activated my Sharingan and stared into his eyes.

"Tell me everything."

The bandit dropped his weapon and collapsed, babbling of everything, just as I had told him. He began to tell his entire life story from his first memory.

I growled, "Not _everything,_ dumbass. Just why the _fuck_ you're here."

He began to babble again. I tried to make sense of his muddled, stuttering speech.

With my information gathering done, I slit his throat.

I slunk my way back to the wagon, glaring at everything as I passed.

News had travelled quickly from the bandit that had escaped, and the Kazu bandit group had sent some of its forces after us.

It was because I had been so arrogant, so quick to underestimate. I had prematurely declared the battle as finished. I had presumed victory before the bodies hit the dirt, before the blood stained the ground.

 _Unacceptable._

The harsh sunlight glared sharply on my eyes as I walked from the dark forest into the comparatively open environment of the road.

I looked at Kurenai, "I took care of the bandits."

She spoke harshly, "What did you find?"

She had immediately assumed that I had left one alive from interrogation. A reasonable assumption. When you have eyes that can coax intel out of people, you would be expected to use it.

Frustrated, I ran my fingers through my long, dark hair, a trademark of the Uchiha clan, "Apparently, the client is distantly related to one of the nobles in the Fire Daimyo's court. The Kazu bandit group thinks that they can get money from capturing our client and holding him for ransom."

Kurenai considered the situation for a minute, "If we hurry, we can make it to Yugakure by the next day," She turned to me, "Kyouki, take position in the trees. Take out any bandits that come our way. I'll stay by the clients."

I nodded, activated my Sharingan, and dashed away into the forest.

This mission was a mess. Our client was being targeted by one of the most powerful bandit groups in the Land of Fire, and we were being tailed by them.

I _better_ get paid well for this one.

* * *

The rest of the escort, surprisingly, went more or less fine. I suppose that after the first few groups of bandits had failed to capture the client, the Kazu figured that the money wasn't worth the loss in fighters.

Or at least, that's what I thought.

The return trip was not nearly as peaceful.

I jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding several kunai that would've impaled me.

Case in point.

I strung several exploding tags onto a length of ninja wire, fastening the end of the wire onto a kunai. I cast Dodomeki over the entire structure, save the kunai.

I threw the kunai, the invisible wire following it. The enemy bandit jumped to the side, avoiding the kunai. I sent a pulse of chakra through the ninja wire, the exploding tags detonating in sequence.

A long string of explosions followed, and a huge cloud of smoke coated the area in a thick fog.

A kunai sailed through the black smoke, heading for my face.

 _Fujin_

My teleportation ability was more efficient than the Shunshin when it came to its range. For the short distance jumps that it was capable of making, Fujin was both faster and more chakra efficient than the Shunshin, making it a viable choice.

I watched the kunai sail past me, the Sharingan's processing power breaking down the angle it was in. With the Sharingan's help, I found the place in the smoke where the kunai came from. I grabbed the kunai from the air and threw it back in the location that I predicted.

A satisfying thud from a body hitting the ground confirmed my hit, and possibly a kill.

I unsealed a few flower seeds, and crouched, waiting for the smoke to clear. I didn't have to wait, as four bandits came careening out of the smoke. I noticed that these ones actually had some kind of rough uniform, with the symbol of the Kazu bandit group plastered on the breast of their outfit.

 _Jubokko_

The flower seeds in my hand exploded out into large flowers. I forced the flowers to produce an abnormal amount of pollen. The flowers that I had chosen already produced a ridiculous amount of pollen, so an 'abnormal' amount really wasn't too much above the norm for these flowers. As such, it didn't take much chakra.

The pollen exploded from the heads of the flowers in a large yellow cloud. The cloud of pollen swirled around, coating the bandits in a thick yellow layer of pollen.

I flicked a tiny amount of fire chakra onto the pollen. Just a little, about the amount of fire that could be produced by striking a match.

The pollen exploded into fire, and the bandits screamed as they were cooked alive.

I smiled cruelly. I had always wanted to use this combination of attacks in live battle.

I dodged to the side right as a few shuriken and kunai flew at me. I narrowed my eyes at the rapidly clearing cloud of smoke.

Only two of the bandits were left out of the rather large group that there had been before. Good. I was hoping for such a result. I had used quite a few explosive tags in the first attack.

I prepared myself for the two bandits. They were either relatively skilled, being able to avoid the explosive, or incredibly lucky. Either way, I would kill them.

I drew two chokuto. I can't quite remember why, but dual-wielding in the last world had some sorts of complications that made it impractical in actual fights. Fighters in this world, however, were just that much better thanks to chakra, and so dual-wielding came with all of the benefits, and little of the downsides.

I crouched down slightly, and stuck my arms out, the swords also sticking out the side. I gathered my chakra, planning to Shunshin. My plan was to have the swords behead the two bandits at the same time, spraying blood everywhere in an over-the-top display of gore and badassery.

Before my Shunshin took off though, the bandits froze in place. I hesitated, wondering what was happening. A pair of kunai came from the trees and struck the two in their necks. They fell to the ground, dead.

"You're slow," Kurenai was sitting on a tree branch, leaning against the trunk of the tree, "I already cleared my bandit group. I've been waiting for you to finish."

I stared at her. The pose I had struck, with both swords held out, suddenly seeming less badass, and more awkward and stupid. I slowly straightened up, sealing both swords back into my seals.

I scowled, stuffing my hands into my pockets. Kurenai only smirked in response.

"Hn."

The village was only two hours away.

* * *

 _Jubokko_

I watched in fascination as the tree twisted and grew slowly. Using Jubokko, I could grow flowering trees, albeit significantly slower, and at a significantly higher chakra cost. The Hashirama trees that littered Konoha and quite a bit of the Land of Fire were particularly interesting to watch. Growing them sucked the chakra out of me like nothing else, too. Flowering trees were already difficult to grow, but the Hashirama trees especially.

I thought that perhaps I could gain a sort of knockoff Wood Release from this ability, but Jubokko was built for small flowers primarily, not for these slow-growing and large trees. It took far too long to grow the trees to be practical in combat, and it was much too draining on my reserves.

The growth of the trees appeared to siphon out some of Hashirama's residual chakra. As the trees grew under the tender care of Jubokko, Hashirama's chakra surged upwards in delight. The tree twisted into an unnaturally straight line, extending towards my outstretched hand. The stick curled at the end, in a crook like manner. I took the length of wood in my hands and held it reverently.

I could see the chakra flowing with my Sharingan, I could _feel_ it. The staff was pulsing with the condensed leftovers of Hashirama's chakra. The thing had an intimate connection with nature. It was the perfect catalyst of water and earth chakra. I could _feel_ its power _._

I span the staff in my hands. It felt balanced and easy to wield. I swung the staff experimentally for a minute or two, before slamming the butt of the staff into the ground.

I'm not quite certain what I was expecting. Maybe some crazy earth jutsu? Despite the latent power that I could feel in the staff, it was still just a stick at the moment. I couldn't harness the power quite yet, but it was there, just at my fingertips.

How would I use it? Could I unlock the secrets of the Mokuton? Could I harness the chakra that Hashirama left behind?

Maybe I'll just stick it into my body somewhere. Awaken the Rinnegan or whatever.

As soon as I figure out how to implant or harness the staff's power, I'll make full use of the thing. I did one last spin with the staff, slipping it onto my back and sticking it there. At the moment, since I couldn't use the staff's potential power, I would just leave it there. It was light and small enough that it wouldn't hinder my movements, and it could be useful to have a weapon outside of the seals.

* * *

A ray of light glared through the thick forest, piercing a perfect path through the twisting maze of trees. I squinted at the sudden light source, eyes watering slightly as they took in the edges of the setting sun.

I had met with Shisui briefly earlier today. A few hours after I had gotten back from my mission, I brushed by Shisui in the Uchiha clan compound. He had slipped me a note:

' _Training Ground Twenty-Three. Sunset.'_

I activated my Sharingan and gathered my chakra for a Shunshin. The world blurred by as my Sharingan counted out the training grounds.

 _Twenty-one._

 _Twenty-two._

 _Twenty-thre-_

"Is that my Shunshin?"

I stopped my Shunshin and looked at Shisui innocently, "I have no idea what you're referring to."

Shisui stared at me for a moment, bewildered, slightly shocked, and mildly irritated.

He rubbed his face with his hand, "...whatever."

A slightly uncomfortable silence settled over the two of us. After a minute of waiting for the other to re-initiate the conversation, I decided to speak up.

"So! The Hokage gave us a deadline to meet."

Shisui nodded, suddenly alert and serious, "He has given you the briefing then?"

"We have seven months to stop the coup. Or rather, we _had_ seven months. Now, we have about six. If we can't stop it in time, the Hokage will order the extermination of the Uchiha clan."

Shisui rubbed his face again, seeming very much exhausted, "Yes."

We stood in silence for a while, both of us contemplating. Shisui opened his mouth.

"I will attempt negotiations with the clan elders. The coup is in its beginning stages right now. It'll be much easier to stop it now than if we wait until it gains traction."

I pondered my somewhat foggy memories, trying to figure out how things would align now. Negotiations would be useless, probably. If I was remembering correctly, there was nothing that could talk the Uchiha out of the coup. But, whatever made Shisui happy, I suppose.

"There is a possibility, and a very good one, Shisui, that negotiations will fail."

Shisui grimaced.

I continued, "Should that happen, we will need a contingency," I fingered the end of my newly made staff, tracing the wood with my fingers, "In six months, should negotiations fail, we will be left with no choice but to use Kotoamatsukami to forcefully stop the coup."

"There has to be another way!" Shisui seemed determined to find a peaceful solution.

I glared at him with crimson, activated Sharingan, "What other way _is_ there?"

"Negotiations will _not_ fail, and the Mangekyou will _not_ be needed!"

Frustrated, I yelled without thinking, "Negotiations _will_ fail, Shisui. In six months' time, we'll be left with no _choice_ , y _ou'll_ be left with no choice!"

Shisui went quiet, pondering what I said.

There goes acting like I didn't know the future, I guess.

"You think I haven't considered another way? You think I haven't consulted the waters?"

Shisui remained silent.

"Because there _is_ no other way! I'm not saying that the future I saw is the _only_ future, but it is the most _likely_ future, and it is the one that we're headed for!"

Shisui glowered at me, his Sharingan also activating in his anger, "Then we will _change_ that future! We'll change it and reach a _peaceful_ solution."

I slumped backwards, the crimson glow of my eyes fading away, "This _is_ the most peaceful solution, Shisui. The future that I'm suggesting is the most peaceful way to calm things down, and I _know_ that for a fact."

Shisui's eyes continued to burn, "I _will_ find a peaceful way."

With that, Shisui Shunshin'd away.

I stared at the spot where he disappeared for a few seconds, before turning away and jamming my hands into my pockets.

I looked up at the rapidly darkening sky and snorted, "What an idiot."

* * *

I had several flower pots in my room, each of them full of more flowers than they logically should be able to hold. Jubokko's growth of flowers allowed me to ignore most normal gardening practises, and cram the flowers as close together as I wanted.

I carefully controlled the pollination of the flowers. I was experimenting to see if I could breed more and more useful flowers out of the ones that I already had.

For example, I was running low on paralysing solution, and didn't feel like buying any. I harvested the flowers that produced the paralysing solution and figured out which two plants had the highest yield. Using Jubokko, I could break the rules of normal flower reproduction and force the two to breed with one another.

Harvesting the seeds produced by such a process, I would replant using them. I would then repeat, figuring out which plants had the highest yield, and breed those two together.

I'm not quite certain that that was how reproduction was _supposed_ to work, but Jubokko apparently was able to circumvent most of the problems involved in such a process, and it worked. Just by growing the plants and figuring out which of them had the highest yields, I had collected enough paralysing solution for my needs. I then stored any excess, so that I could sell them later.

The same process worked to increase any property of any plant. Say I wanted a poison to kill even faster, or one that would stay dormant for weeks before it killed the target. Say I my flowers to have a particular smell. Say I wanted a flower with a _fuck_ ton of thorns on it. Say I wanted some flowers to have some truly ridiculously bright colours.

All I would have to do was selectively breed the flowers.

It was such an incredibly broken process, and it was beautiful.

I've still yet to figure out how to harness the power of my Hashirama staff. The thing's purpose eluded me. I could feel the chakra swirling in it, hell, I could _see_ it with my Sharingan. But I couldn't figure how to extract the chakra, or even use the staff as a catalyst, or implant the thing, or really do anything other than swing the thing around like some mundane stick.

I didn't even know how to start. Implanting foreign chakra was a tricky task, and it would take research to learn how to do it safely. You couldn't just stick the stuff inside of you and expect everything to work out fine. The foreign chakra could potentially dominate your entire system and kill you from the inside out.

Madara, Obito, and Orochimaru knew what they were doing with Hashirama's cells, and they could implant the stuff safely inside of people. I, on the other hand, had no idea what I was doing, and I didn't want to take an unnecessary risk until I knew what I was doing.

So, for now, the staff that I had grown out of the Hashirama tree remained just a mundane stick. It was durable, it was balanced, and it was very nearly entirely useless.

For now, at least.

* * *

 _A/N: And there's that. I'm not quite happy with this chapter, but I figured that after a day or two of reviewing it, I'd just put it out there. I think it's because of my character interactions. My dialogue is rather clunky, and the conversation don't really 'speak' very much, I think._

 _Quite a few of you have commented on Kyouki's Mangekyou being rather weak, which is a fair point. The Mangekyou in canon were all rather badass, so it's a bit jarring to see some that are rather weak. My reasoning for that is that the Uchiha clan had tons of members, and there's no way that a clan that big, with years and years of ninja history, didn't have quite a few Mangekyou that have been awakened. The thing is, the ones in canon were the 'exceptional' ones, and so their Mangekyou were badass. Kyouki is an 'average' ninja, and his Mangekyou abilities are suitably average. At least, that's my reasoning._

 _momo: Oh, ideas, ideas. Those could potentially be used in the future. I'm also still not quite certain about the Amaterasu thingy, whether or not it's an ability common to all Uchiha who awaken the Mangekyou, or whether it's specific to certain users. I guess I'll it up to y'all in the reviews._

 _Some Guy In An Ambulance: I think cameo appearances and interludes are a most wonderful idea. That being said, I need to find a place for them, and that's always an arduous task for me._

 _I definitely tried to expand on the details, but in this chapter, I had to skim over things a bit with the mission. I just couldn't figure out how to write the rest of the thing, so I just skimmed over it. Sorry, hope it doesn't happen too much in the future._

 _CorruptedDrake: I think that question's been answered by growing the Hashirama tree, but just in case: Kyouki can grow flowering trees, albeit at a rather slow rate, and at a high chakra cost._

 _MrTicklesMMM: While I don't think I'll be using your idea directly, you did give me inspiration for something that I will use later, and it's kind of similar. So thanks._

.


	14. Chapter 14

_Disclaimer: I own nothing. This is purely for entertainment purposes, and I am making no profit off of this._

* * *

There was something immensely satisfying about training. Something that you struggled to do only a week before suddenly became doable, even easy.

Genjutsu, ninjutsu, taijutsu, I became proficient in all three.

It was in such a manner that the next three months passed. I trained with Kurenai and became a shinobi of passable skill level. Perhaps I wasn't quite a 'prodigy.' Perhaps I wasn't quite as flashy or dramatic as others, but there was no denying that I was both skilled, and efficient.

It was worth noting that I had cut most ninjutsu off the table. The only ones that I used regularly were the Shunshin, Fujin, Jubokko, and a few C-Ranks. There was no point in using most of them, really. I wasn't aiming to crush mountains or raze villages. I was aiming to kill, and I was aiming to do so either easily or quickly, preferably both. I could accomplish my objectives without the use of the expensive and flashy jutsu, so why bother using them? Through genjutsu, taijutsu, and the use of my weapons, I could finish my missions just fine.

On a side note, I had discovered an interesting property of certain flowers. Apparently, my odd method of selectively breeding flowers had had some unintended consequences. Some of the more mundane flowers had mutated thanks to the rapid influx of chakra over multiple generations. In the wilderness, these sorts of mutations were rare, requiring a powerful source of chakra out in nature, and for the animals or plants to stay within range of that chakra source long enough that they could breed.

Over several generations, the chakra would somehow seep into the bodies of the organisms and give them some sort of mutation pertaining to chakra. It was not very well understood exactly how the chakra 'seeped' into the animals, but it happened. The most prevalent theory for kekkei genkai was actually that they were a form of beneficial chakra mutation.

Jubokko had unnaturally sped up this process, providing that chakra source, and forcing the flowers to quickly speed through dozens of generations. Over the course of my selective breeding, a few of the flowers gained certain chakra mutations.

One flower had gained the ability to store chakra. Not very much chakra, though, I wouldn't be using it to actually store chakra to power up my jutsu. What I would be using it for, though, was genjutsu. The flower could hold a minor genjutsu inside of it, releasing it into another ninja upon contact. I had begun using the petals of the flower when I Shunshin'd. Where other ninja used smoke or leaves, I used flower petals with genjutsu stuffed inside of them.

Another flower had gained the ability to absorb ambient chakra and convert it into fire chakra. It wasn't as useful of a property as it sounded, as the flower only had a tiny capacity for chakra. The flower wasn't constantly bursting into flames or anything, but it was certainly warm to the touch. The particular property of the flower also gave the it a bit of an explosive flair when it was exposed to a large quantity of chakra. The pollen from the flower was particularly combustive in nature.

All of this training and experimentation had lead me to here.

"What?"

"I put your name in for the Chunin Exams!" Kurenai held out some forms for me.

… Unexpected.

I took the forms in my hands, glancing over them

"Don't you need a team for the exams?"

Kurenai smiled, "You're in luck. There's a genin team, Team Twelve, that recently lost a member in a mission, who were also about to take the exams. They need another member, and it just so happens that the one who died also used quite a bit of genjutsu, so you'll fill the role perfectly!"

I raised an eyebrow, "Would that not make it seem like I was replacing their team member though?"

Kurenai waved her hand dismissively, "They'll be fine, and even if they're not, they'll come along! Relax, it'll be fine!"

It was most certainly not fine.

One of my teammates, a branch house Hyuuga named Aiko, refused to even look at me. Given that she was a Hyuuga, whether or not she was looking at me, just not facing me, or actually not looking at me was rather hard to discern.

The other kunoichi, Yashima Misako, glared at me with nothing short of hatred.

Sensei, you liar.

"The hell is he doing here?" Misako angrily questioned the jonin that was leading us, Maruyama Hideyo.

He gave a nervous smile, "Uchiha-san will be… joining us for the upcoming Chunin Exams."

Misako glared at me, then back at her sensei, "Is this some kind of fucking joke? Gento is dead, and this is what happens?!" Hideyo flinched when she spoke. Clearly, the death of his student had hit him hard as well.

I cocked my head at her, she whipped her head around and poked me in the chest.

"Got something to say?!"

I observed her body language and her speech patterns. Her grief is making her irrationally angry, and prone to outbursts.

I chose to remain silent, as to not provoke her.

"Oh yeah, just keep your fucking mouth shut, why don't you?!" She turned away and muttered under her breath, "Fuckin' Uchiha…"

Right, remaining silent isn't exactly the best way to calm down this sort of situation, huh. How about calm and impersonal reasoning?

"Your teammate is-"

Misako whirled around, her eyes shining with tears and barely restrained anger, "You shut the fuck up! You don't know jack shit about losing people. You just had your entire life handed to you on a fucking silver platter. Just shut your fucking mouth!"

… nevermind, then.

I dodged a kunai on reflex. My eyes widened, and I looked at Misako, who had thrown the kunai. I knew she was angry, but that was a live kunai. Had it hit, it could've killed me.

Misako charged at me. I narrowed my eyes at her. I activated my Sharingan and stared into her eyes. She froze and fell to the ground, unconscious. Since I would be working with these people in the future, it was probably be wise to use a less violent option to subdue her.

I deactivated my Sharingan. Normally I don't like using the overt sleep genjutsu, as it was significantly less efficient than most of my other genjutsu, and it required me to have eye contact with the Sharingan active. But, it was one of the only non-violent ways to settle this. I could have restrained Misako with no problem with a multitude of methods, but many of those methods could come across as excessive.

This… shouldn't make me seem hostile, right? In any case, Misako had attacked first and was therefore in the wrong.

Well, even if it did register as hostile, then it wouldn't matter. I had used the Sharingan to hypnotise her a bit. I wasn't quite certain if she really wanted to attend the exams in Kiri, so I inserted a little 'push' in her mind while I had put her to sleep.

I glanced over to Aiko, she continued to stare off in some direction. Again, whether or not she was actually looking at me was hard to see. At the very least she was indifferent to me, rather than openly hostile like Misako had been.

I looked at Hideyo, the supposed leader of this squad. He stared forlornly into the middle distance. He was grief-stricken with the loss of his student, and he had no idea how to handle his similarly grieving remaining students.

Fucking amateur.

* * *

I walked into a dango shop and walked towards the counter to buy some sweets. It was a place that I had frequented with Kurenai between training sessions. I had taken a liking to the dango. I wasn't quite obsessed like I had heard Anko was, but I did enjoy eating the sweet.

I spotted Kurenai sitting in the corner of the shop at a table with Anko, Asuma, and some other ninja that I hadn't seen before. I abandoned my quest for sweets temporarily to stop by the table and say hello.

I activated my Sharingan and blurred into a Shunshin. I stopped right in front of them and watched them draw their weapons in slow motion. I slammed my hand down on the table.

"Kyouki?" Kurenai seemed rather surprised to see me.

"Sensei, you fucking liar!"

"What?"

At this point, several of the ninja sitting at the table were drawing their weapons and pointing them at me. I ignored them.

"It was most certainly not 'fine!'"

Kurenai continued to stare at me, bewildered, "Kyouki, I have no idea what you're talking about."

"I had to fucking fight my own squad after they both charged me, and the jounin sensei did jack shit! Fucking amateurs!"

At this point, the jounin had sheathed their weapons, realising that I wasn't a threat.

Kurenai was still confused, "They did what?"

"Oh yes, just throw me into a team of grief-stricken amateurs, who clearly have issues!" I imitated her voice, "Oh Kyouki, everything'll work out, everything'll be fine. Fine. Fine! Just. Fucking. Fine!"

It was then that Asuma decided it would be a good time to intervene, "Hey kid, I don't know who you are, but-"

I looked at Asuma and eyed the cigarette that hung out of his mouth distastefully.

"Smoking is bad for you, you know."

I drew on my chakra and made a finger gun, a small jet of water shooting out of my index finger. The water flew into Asuma's face and doused the cigarette. He, being a jounin, or perhaps a chunin at this point, most certainly could have dodged the jet of water. His reasons for not doing so were unclear. Perhaps he wanted to see what would happen, was just testing me, or was just genuinely surprised.

In any case, an awkward silence settled around the table.

The silence was broken by Anko slapping her hand on the table and laughing rambunctiously, "The kid's got guts," She wrapped one arm around Kurenai's shoulder, "Hey, Kurenai, who is this kid?"

Kurenai exasperatedly held a hand to her face, "My student, Uchiha Kyouki."

Anko leaned further in my direction, practically lying on Kurenai's lap at this point. She grinned lecherously at me, "Uchiha, huh?"

I cocked my head to the side.

She was interested. Becoming the subject of a ninja's interest was either something that was very good, or very, very bad.

* * *

I absently sparred with Indra. I was rather surprised with his skills. Between my training, both with Kurenai, and at the hospital, running missions, and experimenting with my abilities, I hardly had time to interact with Indra.

Even still, he managed to make quite a bit of progress, without a dedicated teacher even. I had the edge on him still, I had significantly more combat experience, after all, but the gap was certainly closing.

I dodged to the side. I narrowed my eyes at Indra's extended arm. His punches and his movements, in general, were certainly getting quicker.

But I was still faster.

I eyed an opening in his guard and pistoned my arm forwards. Indra raised his arms in a futile attempt to block the strike. My fist impacted into his stomach, making Indra cry out slightly and stumble backward.

With Indra still off balance, I performed a sweeping kick, knocking him onto the ground. Leg raised, I prepared to stomp on him, only for Indra to roll out of the way at the last moment.

Good. His recoveries were also improving.

Indra bounded back up and jumped at me. I crouched under his lunge and looked up. I internally sighed. His awkward jumping maneuver he had performed left his stomach exposed. I suppose this'll teach him to not leave his guard open.

I delivered a harsh blow to his stomach, which was likely already hurting from the blow I had dealt earlier. Indra squeaked in both pain and surprise.

Taking advantage of his shocked state, I moved out from under him and sprang into the air. I brought my legs up and them kicked both feet down onto Indra's back. The kick sent Indra crashing downwards, and I landed gracefully beside him.

I squatted down and looked at him, "You're improving. You definitely are, but you left yourself open."

Indra moaned in response.

"Alright Sasuke, enough lazing about, get up."

Indra rolled onto his back, "Don't… wanna... "

I rolled my eyes, "I bought dango earlier today, but I suppose if you don't want it…"

It was slightly alarming how quickly Indra got up after that.

* * *

The next day with Team Twelve went far smoother than the last, which wasn't exactly saying much, because I had been attacked yesterday. Literally, if today, all we did was look at one another and talk about our feelings, it would have gone better than yesterday.

We spent the day doing teamwork exercises. Reasonable, if we were to function as a team, we would need to have a good dynamic, but it was frustrating doing the things that we were doing, especially because all the training in my entire life up until this point had been mostly focused on individual strength.

Working with the two kunoichi was difficult, as neither of them were very willing to work with me, only doing so reluctantly. Misako disliked me quite a bit still, and Aiko, I assumed, was caught up in the Hyuuga-Uchiha clan rivalry.

The issue was further complicated by the fact that the two of them were woefully average. They weren't bad necessarily, but they weren't good either. They would inevitably lag behind me in combat procedures, which was frustrating.

I would have to remedy their average combat abilities. Hideyo appeared to be a rather average instructor, evidenced by the lack of significant progress the two had made. So I would have to find a way to train them myself. I would not have weak teammates

So, as I walked back home, I tried to think of some way to train them. I supposed that I could just visit them. I didn't know where Misako lived, but I knew where the Hyuuga clan compound was. I would first ask Fugaku for permission to go, then hop on over.

"You want to go where?" Fugaku was having trouble with my request.

"The Hyuuga compound."

"... Why?"

"I will be taking part in the Chunin Exams in Kiri in one month."

Fugaku smiled slightly. Not in a fatherly sort of way, but more of an arrogant 'marvel at the power of the Uchiha clan' sort of smile, "Congratulations, Kyouki."

"The problem is the other two ninja in the squad that I've been assigned to are," I wrinkled my nose, "Distastefully mediocre. I seek to remedy that. My purpose for visiting the Hyuuga compound is to train with one of my teammates in order to elevate them to a passable level of combat prowess."

Fugaku considered it for a minute. He closed his eyes, "You wish to go to the Hyuuga compound to… train with a member of your team that you have deemed… mediocre."

"Yes."

Fugaku gave another arrogant smile. I could already hear what was going on in his head. 'A member of the Hyuuga was so weak that a member of the Uchiha deemed it necessary to train with them.' Not entirely accurate, Aiko wasn't weak by any means, just not good, but whatever floats his boat.

"Go."

I bowed, "Thank you."

"But be prepared to be turned away. The Hyuuga are… less than receptive of the Uchiha. Or really anybody other than themselves."

I bowed once again and hurried out the room. I activated my Sharingan and Shunshin'd to a spot about a fifty metres away from the Hyuuga clan compound. There was no reason to alarm them by appearing right at their doorstep, or worse, actually inside their compound.

The guards stiffened immediately with my arrival. Not that anyone without the Sharingan would be able to tell. Most of the Hyuuga were naturally very stiff and formal. I suppose it came with living in a compound full of people who could watch your every move at any time.

I walked up to one of the guards, preparing to introduce myself and ask where Aiko was, but the guard beat me to it.

"State your name and business."

I cleared my throat, "I am Uchiha Kyouki, and I am here to see Hyuuga Aiko."

Again, the guards recoiled very slightly at the name 'Uchiha.' They had seen the Uchiha crest on the back of my high collared shirt. They had suspected, even knew that I was part of the clan, but I had confirmed it, and that made all the difference. Suspecting was entirely different than knowing.

"You come to see Hyuuga Aiko on what grounds?"

"Team related matters."

I gave a rather vague explanation. 'Team related matters' could be anything really. But it was that sort of vagueness that also sounded rather specific. It was apparently good enough for the Hyuuga guards.

"We will… inform the clan elders of your arrival."

The guard made a few hand seals. Hand signs, actually, would be more accurate. The 'seals' he made with his hands were not to convey chakra, but probably to relay a message. A Hyuuga on the inside would receive his signal and act upon it. The Hyuuga guard otherwise remained motionless.

I stood along with the guards outside the walls of the Hyuuga clan compound, waiting for them to come back with an answer for me. I was beginning to doubt the wisdom of coming here.

It didn't matter what I said or did, it would make me seem arrogant. 'Hey, I thought you sucked, so I came over here to train you up so you don't hold me back during the Chunin Exams!'

While that was exactly why I was here, nothing good would come with mentioning it as such. Perhaps I would spin it as auxiliary teamwork training or something.

"The clan elders have approved your entry," The guard had almost imperceptible amounts of distaste in his tone.

I was surprised. I had doubted whether or not I would gain entry from the start, and the long wait for the elders to give me approval only further enforced the thought that I would be barred from entry.

There had to be an ulterior motive here.

The gates opened for me and I walked inside.

* * *

 _A/N: The popular opinion appears to be that Kyouki shouldn't have Amaterasu, as the ability is specific to only Sasuke and Itachi's Mangekyou. Another thing that a few have commented on is the pink Susanoo, which isn't exactly the most popular choice in colour. I suppose I'll darken it later, with the more developed forms being a sort of red._

 _Here's a question for y'all: What do you think of the tailed beasts?_

 _I saw a post on reddit commenting on how they really disliked the tailed beasts in Naruto, saying that the beasts force power-scaling up to god-tier. Additionally, they mentioned how when you're reading a story where the mc is a jinchuuriki, you always know that when things get bad, they'll just pull out the tailed beasts. They also appear to be way too close to human, as their lack of a need to eat or procreate, as well as their inability to die, should make them way more inhuman._

 _Now, after seeing the post, I'm kind of curious to see what you guys think of the tailed beasts._

 _The-Funeral-Pyre: Ah, sorry I didn't make it clear. I meant exceptional as in good Mangekyou abilities, not exceptional ninja. I'm pretty sure that Mangekyou abilities are more or less random. Obito awakening his hax ability is something rare and powerful, therefore 'exceptional.' I was just saying that since there were definitely more Uchiha that awakened their Mangekyou in history, then their abilities must have been relatively weak, as they weren't even mentioned in canon. Regarding the Hashirama wood, I didn't really think too hard about making other stuff from it before I read your review, but it definitely seems doable. There'll be some 'special properties' in it, but probably not to the extent that you're thinking. I do like where you're headed though._

 _Ricsi0309: With Shisui, I'm aware that it's nearly hopeless. I have a vaguely thought out plan though that hopefully won't seem too out of reason?_

 _Regarding what you said about not acquiring the abilities of the implanted Mangekyou when making the EMS:_

 _"... if the wielder of the new eyes proves compatible enough to awaken an Eternal Mangekyō, they will retain all the techniques from their original eyes along with acquiring the new set's respective techniques."_

 _A quote from the Wikia page about the Mangekyou Sharingan. Thank you for your other suggestions though, I'll definitely use some of them in future chapters._

 _Some Guy In An Ambulance: Senjutsu has been mentioned by a few other reviewers, and I'll probably incorporate it somehow down the line. I'm a bit torn with summons though. The crows seem cool, and they seem to be in the Uchiha clan (both Shisui and Itachi had them), but there's another animal that I think fits the theme and Kyouki's power set. I'll mull it over. Maybe I'll even do a dual summon thing, like Sasuke. Somehow, in addition to the snakes, he acquired a hawk summon, which is never really expanded upon._

 _I don't think Kyouki will ever have the chakra to just throw around jutsu like it's no one's business. Despite having larger than average reserves thanks to being part of a clan, they're not that much larger than average._


	15. Chapter 15

_Disclaimer: I own nothing. This is purely for entertainment purposes, and I am making no profit off of this._

* * *

Aiko stared at me with her uncanny pale eyes.

"Why are you here?"

I cleared my throat, "During our brief training session I noticed that you and Misako were both... "

How to phrase this in a way that didn't seem overly conceited or rude?

"... painfully mediocre."

Nice going, Kyouki.

She scowled at me, " _Uchiha,_ if all you came to do was-"

"I will not have mediocre teammates."

Aiko's mouth snapped closed with an audible click.

Hm. There were a few ways that I could go about doing this. I suppose that I could play on the bitterness that the branch house felt. I never really understood why the Hyuuga felt the need to divide everything like they did. It only produced divisions within the clan, as well as insecurities from some members.

Divisions and insecurities that people like me could use to their advantage.

"Will you settle for mediocre? Will you allow the main house to walk all over you, you _mediocre_ kunoichi? Because that is all you are, average, ordinary, unremarkable, and _invisible."_

I watched her and gauged her reaction. She was angry certainly, she was almost shaking with fury. How could I exasperate that anger?

"The main hou-"

"Shut _up!"_ Aiko lashed out at me in the first display of anger that I've ever seen out of her. Her calm demeanor had been shaken.

I watched the hit come. I didn't even need the Sharingan to counter it. I caught her arm by the wrist and held it.

"This is what I mean," I tugged on her arm, dislocating it. Aiko cried out in pain, "You are weak. You are unfit to be my teammate."

I swept Aiko's legs out from under her and she fell to the ground, moaning as her dislocated shoulder disagreed with the sudden impact.

"Why _is_ it that you are content to be an average, unremarkable kunoichi?"

Aiko was strangely subdued, "It is my fate to be this way. Fate has declared it so, and-"

I sneered, "Fate. _Fate._ What a fucking joke."

I activated my Sharingan, the three tomoe spinning into a pinwheel pattern.

 _Funayurei_

The water rushed in from all sides, creating a frigid, shallow pond. Aiko's long black hair shielded her eyes from my view, but with my Sharingan active, I could see the chakra flowing to her Byakugan. My Sharingan also caught the shift in body language as the Hyuuga girl scarcely believed what she was seeing.

It was both harder and easier to trick people with the Byakugan. Most visual genjutsu didn't work on them, as no one but them knew what the world looked like from their point of view. That being said, the virtual immunity to visual genjutsu left them cocky and vulnerable to the few visual genjutsu that _did_ work.

Such as Funayurei.

The impossibility of the water rushing in, seemingly from nowhere as far as the Byakugan was concerned, and the _reality_ of the water baffled Aiko. I could see it in her body language.

"You see? Reality is subjective, _fate_ is subjective."

I cocked my head at her. And then, as suddenly as it came, the water all disappeared in an instant. Aiko was, once again, entirely shocked. Strangely, the presence of her doujutsu was what made the illusion and my intents with it _stronger._ A person without a doujutsu could simply write it off as a genjutsu, even if they couldn't break it. A person with a doujutsu, however, was conditioned to believe that their eyes never lied, thus making an unbreakable genjutsu such as Funayurei all the more effective.

"So why do continue to follow it?"

I crouched to her level. My hand glowed green with the Mystic Palm, and I hovered my hand over her dislocated shoulder. I could just shove it back in the mundane way, but this way was significantly more comfortable for her.

"Fate is malleable, you can shape it, bend it to your will."

I looked at her straight on, my eyes' crimson glow boring into her.

"The question is: Will you?"

Here was where things may get a little iffy. There were some very large holes in my reasoning. Summoning water from nowhere did not, _at all,_ imply that fate, if it existed, was malleable. Doing impossible things was practically an everyday occurance in the shinobi world. I was relying on Funayurei being just a _little_ more impossible than the usual shinobi thing, and for her to be shocked into hell that her Byakugan, the all-seeing eyes, had _failed._

It was basically the same thing that I had done with Shisui.

And like with Shisui…

Aiko reached out her arm shakily towards me. I grasped it firmly. We made eye contact, Sharingan on Byakugan, crimson on white. We had reached an unspoken agreement.

… it worked like a charm.

* * *

The next few training sessions with Hideyo went reasonably well. Aiko was improving at a reasonable rate with me training with her, but Misako's progression remained stagnant. I had found Misako's address from Aiko and visited her. She had _refused_ to train with me. In fact, she had refused to even let me in.

There wasn't much to be done there. Misako disliked me, and I couldn't bring myself to really care. I suppose I _could've_ tried something with genjutsu, but in the end, it wasn't really worth it. She lacked talent, potential, and determination. There was no point.

I would have to make do with just a single other good teammate. It should be fine. Team Seven back in canon had it worse than I did. At the very least, Misako was somewhat _competent,_ if not good. She would serve just fine.

What I _was_ worried about, however, was Kiri. Yagura was still the Mizukage, and there was quite a bit of civil unrest. Add that to the fact that people with kekkei genkai were feared and sometimes persecuted. It wasn't quite like a 'witch hunt,' but it was bad.

Or at least, I'm pretty sure it was bad. New of civil war had spread, but I'm not quite certain to what extent there were 'bloodline purges.'

But we had two kekkei genkai on our team, with Aiko and I both having doujutsu.

We would have to be careful.

And so we trained. And, after Hideyo had left, after Misako had dragged herself back home, Aiko and I trained long into the night. The gentle moonlight was all that illuminated the training grounds as we traded blows. We would fight until Aiko could stand no longer. Then, after a quick medical jutsu, I would carry her back to the Hyuuga compound and hand her off to her family.

Her determination was admirable.

The training had had a noticeable effect on me as well. The predictive capabilities of the Sharingan had noticeably increased from keeping it active for so long. The Sharingan's chakra requirement was almost negligible, there was hardly any strain in keeping it active. A boon of the Eternal Mangekyou perhaps.

It was nearly one in the morning now. I had already run through the routine of training with Aiko, and I stood in the clearing, breathing deeply and taking in the quiet night in the forest.

When I opened my eyes, they were spinning pinwheels.

I concentrated and forced my will into the world.

 _Susanoo_

How about an arm this time?

I only chose to manifest the right side of the rib cage, along with a skeletal arm. The arm twisted into the world, extending from the half of the ribs that I had chosen to create. This version of the Susanoo would not be used for defence. The lack of the left side of the rib cage meant that the Susanoo's defence had some rather large holes.

I made the Susanoo's arm punch downwards. The fist impacted into the earth, the ground shattering like glass.

I liked to think that the offensive capabilities of this version of the Susanoo made up for the lack of defence.

I dismissed my Susanoo, panting, sweating, and cramping up. It was both painful and chakra-intensive to use the Susanoo for any length of time. I thought that I had been getting better with it, but apparently adding _anything_ onto what I had made everything much, much worse.

A new chakra source appeared in the clearing.

Without even looking, I greeted him, "Good evening, Shisui."

"It's actually the morning now, Kyouki-san."

I suppose it was.

"How have negotiations been going?" I tried and failed to keep the smugness out of my voice. I knew full well that the negotiations have been going poorly. Shisui had made very little impact, if any, like I _told_ him.

Shisui grimaced, "Not… well."

"At this rate, it looks like you'll need to use-"

"No! I will _not_ use Kotoamatsukami on my own _family!"_

I turned to face him, the red gleam of my eyes puncturing the dark.

I spoke softly, "You will regret it then."

Silence.

"The Hokage's deadline draws nearer and nearer. At the same time, the idea of the coup is gaining more and more support," I looked up at the moon, "Three months of negotiations, Shisui. You have accomplished _nothing."_

"You haven't done anything _either!_ I'm making an _effort!_ I'm-"

"Wasting your time," The moon was oddly bright tonight, "I cannot do anything. I have no say in the decisions of the clan, in fact, I shouldn't know about the coup _at all._ You, on the other hand, can quell the ideas of the coup in a single night! Why have you not done as such?"

"Because-!"

"Because you are afraid," I looked back at him, "And you are weak."

There was silence in the clearing.

I spoke, "When the Uchiha start their revolution," I eyes bored into his, "We will both die along with the clan. Uchiha blood will flood the streets."

The silence stretched on.

"When that happens, one of us will die knowing that they did all that they could. The other will die knowing that there was more that they could have done, knowing that they could have stopped it."

Shisui still hadn't moved or spoken.

"I have done my duty. I have informed you, the one with the power to stop the coup. There is nothing more that I alone can do."

I turned away.

"The fate of the clan is in your hands, Shisui. Do your duty."

Shisui was already gone.

* * *

I looked around the market in Konoha for the materials that I wanted. I was in search for some parts for a tooI had in mind. I was looking to buy and put together a few things, actually.

One of them would be a grappling hook of sorts. I was looking for a chakra-conductive kunai to serve as the 'hook' part of it. My idea for the grappling hook was to fasten ninja wire, which was made out of a material that conducted chakra, to the end of a chakra-conductive kunai, in order to apply a long-range tree-walking jutsu to water surface that the kunai embedded itself into.

The chakra part of the thing was needed, as I wasn't confident in the kunai's ability to hold my weight alone. The chakra also had the added bonus of making the whole construct both more durable and more deadly.

I could've used chakra strings, but I wanted the grappling hook to also serve as a means of attack. I could throw the kunai at someone, stick to them, then hurl their body around like a rag doll. At the same time, the ninja wire that was attached to the end of the kunai, enforced with chakra, would be whipping around.

I suppose I could've accomplished the same thing, again, with a chakra string and some nature transformation of some kind. But then it would affect what the functionality of the kunai, and things would get too complicated and chakra-intensive.

Ninja wire, and chakra-conductive kunai, and some kind of holding mechanism.

Maybe I'll use some sort of wheel mechanism to hold the wire, or perhaps I'll just use the normal spool, just with a spinning part or something. Just something to hold it without inhibiting my movements as I threw the kunai.

Speaking of throwing the kunai, ideally I'd like some sort of launching mechanism for the kunai. Doto had his train thing, so I knew that methods for launching kunai certainly existed. It was probably easier and more convenient if I just manually threw it though.

Another thing that I was looking for was a rebreather. You never know when you'll be thrown underwater, or be exposed some unexpected airborne poison. I was hoping to find one in the form of a Kakashi-esque mask. I wasn't quite looking to emulate the guy, but it would be convenient to have it as some thin fabric sort of thing rather than a bulky apparatus.

I also wanted to stock up on supplies in general: kunai, shuriken, senbon, ninja wire. I wanted to be prepared for the rapidly approaching Chunin Exams.

Picking up an assortment of materials that I figured I could put together, I began to walk home, holding a bag full of seemingly random stuff.

Let's see if I can put something together.

* * *

It took many attempts to get my grappling hook to turn out right. The small piles of broken wheels and tangled ninja wire could attests to that. Even in the end, it turned out as a rather crude mechanism.

But it was functional.

 _Thunk!_

The chakra-conductive kunai bit right into the centre of the target board. Grinning, I applied chakra through the length of wire that connected the mechanism attached to my arm to the kunai. The whole structure glowed faintly with chakra. The chakra running through the wire was minimal, not even visible with the naked eye. I could only make it out using the Sharingan.

The chakra within the kunai made it stick to the board. I snapped my hand to the side, and the chakra in the wire complied.

Half of the target board snapped off and flew along with the wire to the side. The chakra enforced string cut through a small sapling entirely, but was stopped by one of the thicker trees. The kunai, still in motion, swung around the tree and wrapped around the trunk.

Frowning, I forced more chakra through the wire and-

 _Snap!_

The half of the training board that was still stuck to the kunai exploded outwards in a cloud of sawdust and splinters.

Oh yeah, if too much chakra is put into the tree climbing jutsu, then the object that's being stuck to tends to explode. The same thing happened once in the Academy when I was screwing around with chakra strings.

I wonder if I could use it on humans?

Another thing that I wanted to test out was a sort of flamethrower. I still had the 'fire flower,' the one that took in ambient chakra and produced fire chakra. I wanted to use the flower in combat, since it was more efficient than actually using jutsu.

For that, I took a brief glance at seals. They were ridiculously complicated, so I only bought the most basic book from the marketplace. Even then, I only took a look at the sections that I actually needed. I would revisit them later. Seals were useful as hell.

I had applied my cursory understanding on a storage seal. I only added a tiny part onto the seal, a little component that would store a bit of chakra and release it a moment later.

The theory was that I would channel chakra into the seal. Some of it would be used to take the pollen of the fire flower out of the seal, and the rest would be put into the secondary part of the seal. That part would then release the chakra stored within it and catch all of the pollen on fire.

Except that the secondary part of the seal was entirely unnecessary. It was much easier just to manually inject chakra into the cloud of pollen when it was released. Additionally, I could choose when to ignite the pollen. I could shroud the entire battlefield in pollen, then light it up when the enemies thought they were safe.

Sometimes, it was best just to go the simpler route.

Gadgets and new toys weren't the only things that I had to play with though. I had continued my training at the hospital, finally getting my chakra control to the level that I could actually use some of the more fun medical jutsu.

Of course, I had to bastardise a bunch of them for combat purposes.

Such as the Mystic Palm. I had a functional version of the thing for a while, but I had just realised something that I could do with it.

The Mystic Palm worked by speeding up the body's natural healing process, that is, cell division, with chakra.

You know what happens when you overload chakra into a body and speed up that cell division too much?

Cancer.

I had accidentally done so when practising on a fish in the hospital. I had decided to pump the fish full of chakra, just to see what would happen.

The fish had exploded into a gruesome fountain of gore as a tumour formed inside of its body.

It was horrific, grisly, and morbidly fascinating.

A plethora of new toys, including medical jutsu, improved Sharingan skills, one good teammate, and one passable one.

I was ready.

* * *

 _A/N: Interesting responses to the bijuu. I was just curious because I didn't think that there was anybody that really disliked something that was so intrinsic to Naruto like the bijuu. Most of you seemed to either like the bijuu, were indifferent to them, or just disliked the Juubi part of the thing._

 _Some people actually like the pink Susanoo, so now I'm kind of divided on whether to make it darker later._

 _Miss Nanami-chan: I liked your points for the bijuu. The Isobu had some sort of cloning technique that it could use when it ate stuff. It's not quite like having kids, but it's almost like the Juubi's division. So already, the Isobu could 'procreate' by dividing itself and 'eat.' Perspective, like you said._

 _ricsi0309: I'm not really certain about the Mangekyou, or really, the Sharingan in general any more. It all just seems kind of hastily put together. The mechanics of implantation are so ridiculous, it's implied that there's some kind of fusion process, but never elaborates. What exactly happens if another Mangekyou is implanted? How does an extra eye even stabilise the Mangekyou anyways? Why would the Sharingan even gain seemingly random abilities upon evolving into Mangekyou? So many questions… I'll probably just pull some stuff out my ass to cover those mechanics._

 _Thanks for your suggestions for plants. I never thought that I'd get so involved in researching botany when first starting this fic. A few other plants have been suggested that I've yet to implement, but I definitely do want to include them sometime._

 _Kyouki's Susanoo will probably have some sort of weaponry, but I've yet to finalise exactly what sort of weapons it'll have._

 _Allhailthesith: I think it's less that there's a limited number of abilities and they appear in different people so much as some abilities are passed through blood. Indra, Sasuke, and Itachi could all use Amaterasu, so perhaps Amaterasu is passed through the head line of the Uchiha? Something like that maybe._

 _Some Guy In An Ambulance: You know, I actually wasn't thinking of bee summons, although that would be pretty cool. (no not the beeeees!) I had a different animal in mind, though you were pretty close. Though with the multiple summons thing, maybe they could both be included? I don't know. Sasuke had a hawk summon, like I said last chapter, so maybe?_

 _I've actually seen chunin exams in Kiri once before, though I can't remember the exact details. Civil war, as Kyouki said, is kind of going on. There's some distrust of kekkei genkai wielders, but clearly Kiri is together enough if they're holding a chunin exams._

 _I feel like a whole lot of what happened late game was kind of hastily put together. Like Kaguya felt like kind of shoehorned in and not quite… eh. I don't know. A lot of stuff in the end didn't quite sit well with me._


	16. Chapter 16

_Disclaimer: I own nothing. This is purely for entertainment purposes, and I am making no profit off of this._

* * *

Misako dragged herself over to me and gripped my shirt, clawing desperately at me, "Kyouki _do_ something, _help me! Please!"_

I looked at her and smiled, "Sure."

My hands glowed with a diagnostic jutsu. Not that I really needed it. It was pretty easy to see exactly what was wrong. Misako was missing both an arm and a leg, the stumps of which were bleeding profusely.

"Ah! I know just how to fix this!" I wiggled my fingers and coated them in chakra.

Misako looked at me with a slight bit of hope, " _Thank you,_ Kyouki. I really ca-"

I shoved my hand into her stomach.

She stared downwards disbelievingly, "Kyouki… _why?"_ Blood began to pour from her mouth.

I pulled my hand out of her abdomen, an organ clutched in my fingers, "Sorry Misako, but Aiko needs this more than you do."

Misako's voice was only a hoarse whisper, "But… Kyou-"

I put a finger to her lips, making a shushing noise, "Shh, don't speak or strain yourself Misako. You're making the blood come out faster," Misako's flesh was rapidly losing colour, "And Aiko needs that blood more than you do."

I looked over at Aiko's fallen form. She wasn't exactly looking _great,_ but she was certainly in better condition than Misako. All four limbs were attached and everything!

"You know, Misako, if you didn't want to die, maybe you should've trained when I asked you to," I made a _tsk_ noise, "If you were better, if you were more _useful,_ maybe _you_ would've been the one getting the organs."

I hummed a soft tune as I began to put my medical training to use in healing Aiko. I absently thought back to how prior events lead up to now.

 _Flashback no jutsu!_

* * *

The first stage of the exams had gone rather smoothly. It was another one of those gimmicky morality tests, and we passed on to the second stage with really no problem.

The goal of the second stage of Kiri's Chunin Exams was rather straightforward.

 _Make it to the finish line._

There were no other objectives. There were no scrolls to collect, or flags to capture.

The thing that made it hard though, was the fact that the finish line was a full _two islands_ away. We were dropped on an uninhabited island in the Land of Water and were told to make it back to Kiri. Doing so required the teams to cross the expanses of water somehow.

Some of the teams tried to cross the water using the water walking jutsu, a move that proved successful for some, and _lethally_ unsuccessful for others. Walking on such a wide stretch of water left one tired, and for some of the less experienced ninja, distracted, as they concentrated to keep on the surface. That, coupled with the lack of cover on the water, left those that tried vulnerable to attack.

I planned to Shunshin to the other side. It was actually a good option. With some quick and rough calculations, I had figured that a Shunshin to the next island would be faster and actually _more_ chakra-efficient than using water walking.

It was perfect, until I remembered that I had a _team,_ which I couldn't leave behind. I couldn't confidently say that I could carry them over in my Shunshin, and nobody other than me even could use the Shunshin as a viable option.

Because of the Shunshin's high speed, either a very good instinctive knowledge of the land, or very good reflexes were required in order to navigate well with the Shunshin.

Or, you could just use hax eyes. I wasn't so bothered anymore that I had to use the Sharingan to use the Shunshin accurately. The amount of time that I could keep the Sharingan active was longer than before by a ridiculous margin.

Unfortunately, neither of my teammates could Shunshin nearly as well as I could, so we were stuck using more mundane methods. Misako apparently couldn't fucking water walk, so we had to go even _more_ mundane.

We planned to build a boat, until we realised that none of us actually knew how to build a boat. It seemed so simple before we actually started to _build_ it.

In the end, we killed off another team and used their boat.

Er- _I_ had killed another team and stolen their boat. I didn't want to deal with potential protests had I told my team that I was planning to kill another team, so I murdered them discreetly and burned their bodies. I just left out the part where I killed them when I reported back to my team and told them that I just stole the boat.

The boat had the disadvantage of being rather slow and having a lack of cover, but we weren't attacked. Most of the strong teams had likely already crossed the water using the water walking jutsu, or perhaps we were just lucky.

It was on the next island that things started to get a little… messy.

I saw Aiko stiffen. Something had likely come into the range of her Byakugan. I had learned while training with Aiko that her range with the Byakugan was pitifully low. Well, actually, it was average for a ninja of her calibre.

While an adult jounin Hyuuga could see for kilometres with their Byakugan, Aiko, a slightly above average genin, could see for maybe fifty metres.

That meant that whatever was coming for us was _very_ close.

I immediately activated my Sharingan and Shunshin'd away into the forest.

A moment later, the forest erupted into an explosion.

After the explosion, I hadn't bothered to chase after the team that had bombed us. I had watched the forest for chakra signatures, and there were none, save for my own team.

* * *

And that brings us to now!

Harvesting Misako's cooling corpse for parts to transplant into Aiko.

Aiko had escaped the blast _much_ better than Misako had. I suspected that it was because of the extra training she did with me. She was able to react quickly, but apparently not _that_ quickly. She had sustained injuries, and rather severe ones at that.

Still not as bad as Misako.

Speaking of Misako, I had rendered basically her entire body at this point. Aiko only really needed a single organ and some blood, but I wanted to take the rest of Misako's body parts, at least the undamaged parts, because you never know, yeah? And it's not like she's using them anymore.

It was a lucky thing thing that the organs that I needed from Misako were more or less undamaged, and that she had the same blood type as Aiko. Otherwise, things would have been _really_ bad. I was passable with medical jutsu now, but clearly not good enough to heal a severely damaged organ, and _certainly_ not good enough to change a blood type.

I _might've_ been able to just fabricate the blood using the Mystic Palm, but again, I wasn't sure that I was good enough for that yet. Better to use already existing blood if it's there.

I decided to set up a perimeter of traps and camp out here until Aiko's condition stabilised. When she was safe to move around, I would carry her and water walk to the finish line.

Should be relatively easy.

* * *

The minute dawn broke, I checked over Aiko. She was in good enough condition to move, so I picked her up and began hopping through the woods.

I thought over what had happened to Miasko. What reason would I give for her cause of death? 'Oh, she had like, one foot in the grave already, so I took her organs and saved my other teammate instead!'

 _That_ would go over well.

I'd probably just tell them that Misako died to an explosion, and that her body had been entirely obliterated by the blast.

Actually, screw that last part. She had died in the explosion, but parts of her body were still usable for transplantation. Just in case they ever found out about Aiko's mismatched organs, I'd have a cover story.

I activated my Sharingan and took a quick scan around, narrowing my eyes when I saw three chakra signatures up ahead. They were another team. They might prove to be a problem

I put Aiko down on the ground and administered some sleeping solution to her, to keep her unconscious. I then cast several layers of genjutsu over her, to hide her, finally ending with a chakra suppression seal. I had basically drugged her, hid her, and prevented her from using any jutsu, but in the end, she was out of the way and virtually undetectable.

I Shunshin'd through the forest towards the chakra signatures that I had seen, stopping a little ways away on a tree branch. I peered downwards at the three genin that were travelling on the forest floor. They were Iwa-nin.

I drew a little bit of chakra into my palms and rubbed them together, creating a light rustling noise. The noise could easily be passed off as a sound of the forest, and it passed by unnoticed by the team below me.

The noise had carried a genjutsu that was targeted at two of the three genin. The genjutsu would make them keep seeing everything exactly the way it was, with their third teammate walking beside them.

Even when, in reality, he was dead. I had thrown a poisoned senbon at him, and he fell quietly to the ground, his teammates completely unaware of his death.

My Sharingan observed him, and I made a very nearly perfect Henge into him. I walked into the place where he had once been walking and cancelled the genjutsu on the two other ninja.

I turned to the one beside me, "Hey, did you hear that noise?"

He turned and looked at me, "What no-" He froze, caught under a genjutsu. The red glow of my Sharingan shone under the Henge that I was wearing.

The final member of the team frowned and looked over at us, "Ichei? Daizo? You guys good ther-"

A kunai tore into her neck, killing her. I retrieved the kunai that was lodged in her body and slit the other guy's throat with it.

I Shunshin'd back to where I had left Aiko. Concealing it to such an extreme seemed kind of superfluous now that the combat had ended rather anticlimactically, but better safe than sorry I suppose.

I hoisted her onto my shoulder and carried her across the water to the final island.

* * *

It was a good thing that Kiri cared far less about team performance than Konoha did. We had done well enough, and we would be moving on to the final stage, a tournament. There were no preliminaries. Only two other teams had managed to pass. And of those two other teams, only one had made it through with no casualties.

In total, there were only six participants moving on to the third stage.

This'll be a real shitty tournament, I guess. Kiri was actually so desperate for people to move on that they allowed a team with only a single surviving member to move on to the tournament round.

This was a brutal Chunin Exams.

Well, it wasn't really all that deadly. Plenty of teams had simply gotten stranded on some island or another, and had failed to make it to the finish line by the end. Kiri had to dispatch rescue teams. So really, a good three-quarters of them had made it out alive.

We were given just two weeks to prepare, compared to the month that was given in canon.

That would be just fine.

* * *

It was back to training the minute we got back to Konoha. After a single day of rest, I hit the training fields.

But first…

 _Susanoo_

… I had to check on Shisui.

I tried for an entire skeleton this time. The arms split apart at the elbows to make four separate arms. The embarrassingly pink structure extended around me, draining my chakra at an alarming rate.

I was getting better though.

Shisui appeared in the training ground and I dismissed my Susanoo.

I looked at him impassively and waited for him to start off the discussion.

Shisui sighed, "I… will use Kotoamatsukami on Fugaku-sama in five days."

I gave him an inquisitive glance, "Oh?"

"Yes," Shisui had never looked more resigned, "There are only two and a half months to go before the Hokage's deadline and… the Uchiha council has nearly reached a decision."

Ah. So that was what pushed Shisui. Negotiations have failed, and things were very nearly set in stone. Only the clan head could veto the decision now.

"If I may ask, why five days? Why not this very night?"

"I still hold on to the hope that the council will reconsider. The final vote will take place in four days. If the vote turns out to be in favour of the coup, then I will have no choice."

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Even now, the peace-loving idiot wanted to wait.

"Well, best of luck, Shisui."

Shisui gave me a shallow bow, "Farewell Kyouki-san," He Shunshin'd out of the training ground.

That sounded strangely final.

* * *

 _A/N: I'm kind of unhappy with this one. I feel like I wasted the Chunin Exams, but I couldn't really write anything better._

 _LordGhostStriker: I'm not certain what you mean? The lack of half of the rib cage was just because Kyouki only manifested what he needed. He only needed one arm, so he decided to forgo the other side of the rib cage because it wasn't needed to form the other arm. That being said, don't all Susanoo have four arms in one of?_

 _MrTicklesMMM: I didn't actually know that Itachi's reserves were average. Actually, when I searched it up, I found this on the Wiki:_

" _As an Uchiha, Itachi's chakra was naturally strong, but his actual reserves were below average, made worse by his terminal illness."_

 _You learn something new every day, I guess. Though…_

" _Itachi had very refined chakra control, however, which compensated for this."_

 _So yeah… I do plan on Kyouki eventually being a bit less wimpy, but keep in mind that he's still a genin. Susanoo, and a whole bunch of the more powerful jutsu are just out of his skill range right now._


	17. Chapter 17

_Disclaimer: I own nothing. This is purely for entertainment purposes, and I am making no profit off of this._

* * *

I sat, cross-legged on the ground. I was trying to hone my chakra sensory techniques. Most mid-tier and above ninja had at least some level of chakra sensing. Perhaps not to the level of an actual sensor-nin, but certainly enough to feel out particularly powerful jutsu and the like.

As such, I felt it necessary to train in chakra sensing. It was a good skill to have anyways.

I felt _something_ enter the training ground that I was in. I couldn't tell who it was, and my sensory abilities would likely never reach the level where I could tell who people were by their chakra signatures.

I cracked an eye open.

"Ah, Kurenai-sensei. Hello."

I closed my eyes again, trying to immerse myself back into trying to sense things. The outlines were all blurry and undefined.

"How have you been doing, Kyouki?"

I stood up, my concentration broken, "I'm fine."

Kurenai looked at me doubtingly, "Just know, if you ever need anyone to talk to, I'm here."

I was slightly confused, but gave her a shallow bow, "Hai, Kurenai-sensei."

Lady, you've seen me massacre two seperate bandit camps. What makes you think I'll be traumatised by the death of _one_ person? Especially one that I literally harvested the corpse of?

To be fair, teammates are supposed to be important with all the 'Will of Fire' junk. So, I _suppose_ that if I were particularly impressionable, like a normal child should be, that could've left an impact on me.

Team Hideyo had been more or less disbanded. It hadn't _officially_ been disbanded, but we rarely met anymore. Aiko, after passing the second stage, began receiving more training from her clan. You're welcome, Aiko. I myself had gone back to Kurenai for training.

Hideyo, last I heard, was planning on going into the ANBU. The death of two of his students in such quick succession had done a number on his psyche. While he _technically_ couldn't just leave us, since we were getting training from outside sources, and everyone felt kind of bad for him, no one really questioned it. It was kind of similar to how Kakashi left Naruto in the care of Ebis to train Sasuke in canon. So long as there was an alternative in place, no one cared.

Kurenai had set me to train with sensory jutsu, hence my earlier training. I had asked her about the Summoning jutsu, but she had refused, saying that the process of reverse-summoning oneself to get a summon was dangerous. I suppose that was true. Most of the powerful ninja got summons though, so I definitely wanted some. eventually.

I soon settled back into the routine of training and experimenting.

* * *

It was the night of the fifth day. The elders had reached their decision yesterday.

The coup would go on. In a few short months, the Uchiha planned to rebel. Shisui would be able to stop things though. His attempt to brainwash Fugaku was much earlier now than in canon, so hopefully Danzo wouldn't intercept him. The Hokage had given us a very open-ended schedule, after all, so Danzo wouldn't know when to show up.

Unless he spied on us, that is.

Shisui was an elite ninja, and had two shots with Kotoamatsukami. He wouldn't screw things up.

Well, he did in canon.

There's no point in worrying, I guess. Worst case scenario, the Hokage exterminates all of the Uchiha and I have to bail on the village. I was more confident in my ability to survive as a nuke-nin now that I've seen my skills in comparison to other genin.

I sat down on the ground, closing my eyes and concentrating. I was practising my sensory jutsu once again. With enough practise, I would eventually be able to do such without having to assume a meditative state. My awareness stretched into a pitifully small area of relatively accurate sensing, and a comparatively vast ocean of vague shadows.

I frowned as I felt a large and familiar chakra pulse. After a moment of consideration, I shrugged it off. Plenty of shinobi were probably practising at the moment, and one of them had perhaps used a large jutsu that I was familiar with.

But that one had felt rather… Sharingan-y, for a lack of a better term.

My frown deepened. I wasn't the _best_ at categorising things with sensing yet, but there was a distinct sense of unease now.

Actually, it was probably Shisui, casting his Kotoamatsukami.

Hm. But I've never felt or even _seen_ Kotoamatsukami in use before. The familiarity of the jutsu wouldn't register if I wasn't familiar with the jutsu used.

Of course, if I _had_ experienced Kotoamatsukami, I suppose i wouldn't remember it now, would I.

Debatable, actually. If I was subject to Kotoamatsukami, then there perhaps would be _some_ level of recognition.

I tensed as I felt another familiar jutsu. One that was even _more_ recognisable than the first one. My blood felt like ice as I thought of the implications of that chakra.

 _Susanoo_

I had used Susanoo enough that I could tell that it was the one, even from the blurry and vague chakra that I had sensed.

Itachi awakened his Mangekyou in canon from watching Shisui's suicide, which hadn't happened yet. The only two known Mangekyou users in Konoha were Fugaku and Shisui. Fugaku never demonstrated the use of the Susanoo in canon.

This left only Shisui.

Perhaps I _should_ have told him about Danzo. I didn't, because I didn't think that Danzo would get involved this time around, but clearly that was a dumbass decision.

The earlier chakra that I had sensed was probably the Izanagi then.

 _Dammit!_

Danzo already had one of Shisui's eyes. Shisui was pulling out his last ditch defense against the Root operatives then.

Growling, I activated my Sharingan and Shunshin'd to the location where I felt the Susanoo.

I arrived at the scene. It was hell. Charred bodies laid on the ground. There were a few dead operatives that were stuck to trees, pinned there by large green needles.

This was Shisui's work. He hated violence, but something had clearly forced his hand.

My eyes span around, searching for a chakra signature.

 _There!_

I Shunshin'd to the chakra signature that I saw. It was Shisui. His chakra was almost entirely depleted. He was weak, and he was dying. There was no way that he could brainwash the clan now.

And he only had one eye remaining.

He croaked out, "Kyouki…?"

"You look like shit, Shisui."

"Kyouki, I… I have _failed."_

I didn't reply.

"I'm bleeding out too quickly. I will… probably die here. There's no _time_ to do anything. You can't carry people with your Shunshin, and you can't hop to the hospital fast enough to save me. This is probably it for me, Kyouki."

Well, I had some medical jutsu…

"Kyouki, you have to continue the mission. I'm-"

 _Wait…_ is this going where I think it's going?

"-giving you my eye. My other eye is in Danzo's hands. You _have_ to retrieve it. You _must_ finish the mission. I know you can do it Kyouki. You have all of that 'future knowledge.' I'm putting my faith in you, Kyouki."

Well, screw the medical jutsu. Die faster Shisui! Give me your fucking eye already. Oh, the possibilities! I could brainwash the Hokage and get a Kage-level bodyguard. Or, better yet, I could brainwash Obito and teleport wherever, then play Pokemon with the members of the Akatsuki! Or… or…!

Shisui grimaced. He had an almost… disapproving look on his face. Screw you, just die already! Give me your eyeball!

Yeah, screw the clan! Once I had Kotoamatsukami, I could just murder them all with my new minions, then harvest their eyes for _hundreds_ of Izanagis! I could…!

"Kyouki, one last thing."

"Hm?"

" _I'm sorry."_

* * *

 _I drowned in crimson._

* * *

I cradled Shisui-sama's precious eye in my hands. I gazed upon Shisui-sama's corpse lovingly, recollecting all of the fond memories that we had shared together. Shisui-sama had taught me so much.

" _Servethevillageobeyyoursuperiors."_

Haha! You're so funny, Shisui-sama!

" _Value_ _yourcomradesbecomestrong."_

What a great thinker! What an amazing mind! Truly, today is a tragic day, for we have lost the most loyal of ninja, Shisui-sama.

" _Eliminateallthreatstothevillagefollowthewilloffire."_

I love you, Shisui-sama.

I smiled. I looked up and smiled some more. I thought back to the corpses that Shisui-sama had left, and smiled _even more._

" _Behappysmileyouareloved."_

 _I love you, Shisui-sama._

* * *

 _A/N: Short. Exceedingly short. This felt like a good place to end it, so I just left it here. Think of the break between this chapter and the next as an ultra-line break._

 _LordGhostStriker: Yeah, I can kind of see that. I meant 'weaker defence' in reference to the Susanoo rib cage, not compared to others. Sorry for the confusion._

 _Mr Beaver Buttington: So, Swagkage said in his video about the Susanoo:_

" _Also I guess it's possible to create four arms for your Susanoo at this stage, even though Susanoo users don't do this all the time, so I don't really know if there are any limits on it."_

 _This happened at 8:41 of the video, in case you want to check it again._

 _The Wiki has said:_

" _...all Susanoo constructs are deviations of the Japanese tengu, they also have two sets of arms — one of which can form wings as part of its Complete Body form — and six fingers on each of its hands."_

 _Madara, Sasuke, and Itachi have all demonstrated the ability to put four arms on their Susanoo in at least one of the forms that they used, so yeah… I'm going to stick by the Susanoo having four arms, I think._

 _JS: At the moment, I haven't planned for romance in the story. This is, of course, subject to change, but I haven't planned for it yet. Interacting with the main cast more probably will happen later on_

 _Sorry if I didn't reply to your review. Most of the ones that I didn't reply to would've involved heavy spoilers if I replied._


	18. Chapter 18

_Disclaimer: I own nothing. This is purely for entertainment purposes, and I am making no profit off of this._

* * *

I watched Shisui-sama's body burn. Though it pained me to do it, it was what Shisui-sama would have wanted me to do. It would be a terrible thing if anyone obtained a piece of Shisui-sama, especially in a world where one could be resurrected to fight against the village.

I felt a presence behind me. I turned around, and saw _him._

"Ah, Danzo, how nice to see you!"

Danzo peered at me with his single exposed eye, "Indee-"

"Ah, so you spied on us, didn't you? You heard us planning, your fucking precious _Root_ heard us. That's how you knew."

Danzo looked at me with a dispassionate expression.

"And then you intercepted him. You surrounded the entire Uchiha compound with your fucking Root agents so that Shisui-sama couldn't get in."

Danzo remained silent.

I put on a dreamy expression, "I was _there,_ Danzo. I _watched_ you steal Shisui-sama's eye. Oh, how much I miss Shisui-sama already," I clasped my hands together.

My Sharingan activated and my demeanour shifted. I looked at Danzo with a crazed gleam in my eyes.

"Give me the _fucking_ eye _, Danzo!"_

Danzo remained still.

A high-pitched giggle escaped from my lips. I pondered the advice of Shisui-sama.

" _Serve the village. Obey your superiors."_

Danzo was certainly my superior. But, he was inferior in rank to the Hokage, who had directly assigned the mission to me. As such, the Hokage's orders should be followed. Danzo was an asset to the village, but so were the Uchiha. The Uchiha were arguably more valuable than Danzo, although with Root, it was a bit hard to tell.

But Danzo was not only infringing on clan rights, being a bloodline thief and all, but he was interfering with an _S-Rank mission_. Actively working _against_ me, another asset of the village, except _I_ had orders from the village's highest authority.

This all meant that Danzo was an obstacle, an enemy of the village.

" _Eliminate all threats to the village."_

My decision was made. Thank you Shisui-sama, for even in death, you continue to guide me.

I closed the distance between us in a Shunshin. My Shunshin was still nowhere near as beautiful as Shisui-sama's Shunshin, but it would do.

I exited the Shunshin with my left arm extended, reaching for the eye that I knew to be under Danzo's bandages.

 _Shink! Shink! Shink! Shink!_

Four different blade pierced my body before I reached him, holding me in place. I grinned at Danzo, even as the blood began to stain my teeth. My eyes span in a frenzy of movement.

 _Fujin._

I teleported forwards just that _little_ bit that was required.

To his credit, Danzo barely even flinched as I tore the eye out of his socket.

I have filled out _one_ of Shisui-sama's final orders.

I laughed, paying little mind to the blood that flowed out of my very much open wounds.

 _Susanoo_

My skeletal Susanoo came into life, roaring and wildly swing its arms around. The ground was being pounded into rubble, and through the thin clouds of debris, I saw that blood had been spilled.

I retrieved a tube of preservative fluid, the same one that had once housed Mother's eyes, and dropped Shisui's eye into it. It joined its twin.

Then, all at once, I felt the strain of keeping the Susanoo active. My wound and the pain of using the Susanoo forced me to the ground, panting and shaking.

Danzo appeared over me instantly, "I am done playing games with you, _child."_

I attempted to rise up in defiance. Danzo weaved some hand seals at an ungodly pace. I watched the wind that he generated approach me with the Sharingan.

 _Fujin_

It was not far enough.

And then I had no legs.

I cackled, my raspy laugh becoming louder and louder.

 _"Be happy. Smile. You are loved."_

This was nothing. This was nothing more than what I would do for Shisui-sama. I began to gather my chakra together for a Shunshin.

More hand seals were made by Danzo. Another wave of wind rushed at me, and suddenly, my left arm was gone.

And then I disappeared into a Shunshin.

* * *

I sat slumped against a tree in the forest just outside of the Uchiha compound. The perimeter that Danzo had set up to counter Shisui had disappeared. They were probably ordered to leave as soon as Shisui showed up, for fear of being caught by the Uchiha.

I was bleeding out of the multiple severe wounds that I had suffered. My blood was pooling up on the ground in dark puddles.

 _Izanagi_

And then I was fine.

I growled angrily. After the high of combat had worn off, I had gotten time to reflect on what happened.

I had gotten _lucky._ Danzo and Root weren't expecting half of the things that I had pulled out. The only reason that I had managed to succeed was because of the element of surprise. Danzo wasn't expecting me to teleport, but I did, and it costed him Shisui-sama's eye. Root probably had intel on my Susanoo, but they had never seen it actually used like this.

Shisui-sama didn't die for me to play dice with fate. He died so that I could _servethevillageandobeymysuperiorsandvaluemycomradesbecomestrongandeliminateallthreatstothevillageandfollowthewilloffire._

So I had to train. I couldn't afford to be lazy at all, not when so much was hinging one me. Shisui-sama had put his faith in me, not only for this mission, but for _all_ of my missions.

But first…

I pulled out the tube that contained Shisui-sama's eyes. I took one of them out. Strangely, one of Shisui-sama's eyes seemed… tired somehow. As though he used it. It would require a decade of recharge time for it to be usable once more.

I wonder what he used it on?

No matter, Shisui-sama probably had his reasons, even if I couldn't decipher them. There was still the one that I took from Danzo, and he had yet to use that one. Tearing out my useless eye, I reverently placed Shisui-sama's eye into my empty socket. I gently applied some medical jutsu to the spot.

Now you can watch over me forever and _ever and ever,_ Shisui-sama.

I shivered in delight at the distinct feeling of _rightness_ having Shisui-sama's eye inside of me.

As for the other eye, exposing it to Hashirama's chakra would drastically reduce the cooldown time of the eye.

I suppose I've found a use for my staff, then.

Before I could do anything, I froze, feeling a powerful chakra enter my range. I immediately activated my Sharingan and turned towards the source of the chakra.

A swirling mask.

 _Tobi._

He was _fast._ Not quite as fast as Shisui-sama, but still fast. There was no time to mould chakra for a Shunshin. Fujin wouldn't carry me far enough to avoid the blade swinging at my neck, and even if it did, there was nothing stopping him from swinging it at me once again.

Well, there were two things that I _could_ do.

Either Izanagi, or…

 _Kotoamatsukami_

Tobi stopped dead in his charge, enraptured in the carmine glow of my eyes.

" _Serve me."_

Tobi stood deathly still. I felt Shisui-sama's eye drain of energy, and I knew that there was a very good chance that I had failed one of Shisui-sama's objectives. With the second charge of Kotoamatsukami used up, it would be a long time before I could use it again. Even with the Hashirama chakra in my staff, even if I implanted the eyes into Tobi, who had Hashirama implants, it would take too long for them to recharge.

 _You must finish the mission._

I had failed.

Or had I?

 _Quell the Uchiha rebellion before it even starts._

The objective that the Hokage had given us could be interpreted in several ways.

They couldn't rebel if they were all dead, now could they?

I giggled, "Oh, _Tobi~"_

Tobi snapped into attentiveness, staring at me intently, waiting for orders.

I hesitated in giving him the order to murder the Uchiha clan. It would be so easy. After all, he had helped in the massacre in canon. There was no reason that he couldn't do it again.

Was I perhaps disobeying one of Shisui-sama's orders?

Serve the village. Obey your superiors. Value your comrades. Become strong. Eliminate all threats to the village. Follow the Will of Fire.

The Uchiha clan was a _plague._ They would all succumb to the Curse of Hatred, save a few. The fact that they were planning the coup was testament to that. I would be _serving the village_ if I got rid of them.

But…

 _Value your comrades._

The Uchiha were my comrades.

Shisui-sama's orders crossed over one another.

Which one would I follow? How could I make a path through them without crossing over another? Or perhaps I could find a peaceful way to end to rebellion? No. If the Uchiha clan survived, then they would surely rebel again. Perhaps re-integrating them into the village would be the solution?

I would have to think upon it. Perhaps prioritise things. Much like others pondered and interpreted the sacred writings of their religions, I would ponder and interpret the word of Shisui-sama.

But one thing was for certain.

"Kill Danzo for me, won't you? Expose him. Expose Root. _Bring me his head."_

Tobi disappeared in a swirling distortion.

* * *

Danzo's severed head leaked crimson fluid onto the Hokage's desk and his paperwork.

"What have you _done?"_

I smiled at the Hokage, "I have discovered an imposter in our ranks."

The Hokage looked at me as though I were insane, "An _imposter?"_

I nodded, "A false believer in the Will of Fire. A cancerous growth in the Leaf. _A threat to the village,"_ I licked me lips and my smile grew wider, "And threats to the village must be _terminated_."

The Hokage only stared at me.

And then I saw nothing.

* * *

Inoichi was scared. He had walked through countless minds before, but this one had felt… _wrong._

"It's almost like… he has _two_ seperate sets of memories."

"Oh?" The Hokage was curious.

"One of them is… locked, somehow. The other set is…well, it's… complicated. "

Ibiki motioned for Inoichi to continue, and Hiruzen looked equally intrigued.

"I don't know _what_ Uchiha Shisui did, and I don't think I even _want_ to know, but Kyouki now has some sort of… almost _compulsive_ loyalty to the Leaf," Inoichi paused, looking for the words, "All of the memories that I could see were… corrupted somehow. Serve the village. Obey your superiors. Value your comrades. Become strong. Eliminate all threats to the village. Follow the Will of Fire. Nearly all of his logic follows at least one of those statements."

Ibiki processed the information quietly, while Hiruzen puffed on his pipe.

"What happens if the statements contradict one another? Like if, on a mission, saving his comrades would hinder the objective, therefore running across 'Obey your superiors?'"

"I think that… either he'll have to prioritise, or he'll suffer a breakdown. I think the former though, as was demonstrated with… Danzo. His wish to kill Danzo seemed to contradict the 'Obey your superiors' command, but Kyouki believed that since Danzo was interfering with the mission, he was a threat, and enacted the 'Eliminate all threats to the village' command."

Ibiki and Hiruzen were quiet.

But there was more that Inoichi had to report, "Not only that, but Kyouki appears to have some kind of… foreknowledge."

Both Ibiki and the Hokage's eyebrows raised at that.

"Or at least, Shisui seemed to think so. One of his last words to Kouki were, 'You have all that 'future knowledge.' I'm putting my faith in you Kyouki.'"

Ibiki scowled, "Is it true?"

"It's hard to say. Kyouki's memories are so muddled and messed up from _whatever_ Shisui did, that it's hard to get anything coherent out his head other than the orders that were given and a few memories with Shisui."

Hiruzen rubbed his temples, "Is he fit for duty?"

"It's hard to say. He's not a flight risk, and I highly doubt he'll choose to kill any more of his superiors, but…" The worry about Kyouki's sanity was left unspoken, but everybody in the room was thinking it.

The Hokage nodded, "You are dismissed, Inoichi."

When Inoichi had left the room, Ibiki turned towards Hiruzen, "Kyouki spoke the truth with Danzo, we found his hideout after Kyouki… _dealt_ with Danzo. Root was still assembled and there were… files."

The Hokage grimly nodded, "Make sure they're on my desk tomorrow morning."

Ibiki nodded.

"You are dismissed."

* * *

 _A/N: So, should Kyouki keep Funayurei, the ability in the eye that he used to Izanagi, or should he lose it with the loss of the eye? It's unclear what happens in a lot of these cases, I think. I might have to do some further research._

 _Quite a few people commented on the hypocritical nature of Shisui's Kotoamatsukami, which is fair. He dragged his feet for a while, and didn't like the thought of using it. However, at the end of the day, he would rather brainwash somebody than let his village down. He was prepared to use it on Fugaku, but then things got messed up. He saw through Kyouki's greed and used it on him instead._

 _I changed 'save' your comrades to 'value,' just to make it very slightly less contradictory, but, as seen here, there still is a level of crossing over._


	19. Chapter 19

_Disclaimer: I own nothing. This is purely for entertainment purposes, and I am making no profit off of this._

* * *

The Uchiha clan went _insane_ when they found out that I, the clan head's son, was stuck in a cell and interrogated. Probably didn't help the feelings of resentment that they held towards the village. I could have escaped by calling Tobi, but that would be in violation of Shisui's orders.

Anyways, with the backlash from the clan, and with the Hokage finding Danzo guilty after all, I was released from my holding cell quickly.

But I had been held in the cell for two days. Those two days had been enough to get my thoughts together.

It helped that mindwalking was an art that made one more introspective. Getting mentally violated tended to make you more aware your own thoughts and past actions.

Fuckin' Yamanaka.

With all of the introspective thinking and time to myself, I had become much more collected than before.

Where before, I was taking Shisui-sama's word to the extreme, intoxicated by the soothing, _oh so righteousness of Shisui-sama's advice, oh how much I-_

Ahem.

I realise now that Shisui-sama's word be taken in a more subtle manner. Something that could be done all the time. Shisui-sama's word was applicable to extreme acts of faith, but it was more relevant to everyday things.

Which is why I had taken to smiling.

Smiling all the time.

 _Be happy. Smile. You are loved._

I am happy.

I am loved.

And thus, I smile.

At random intervals, I would pull my lips back and bare my teeth in a cheery grin. I could not smile _all_ the time. Not only did I have to sleep, but at times, it felt as though my smile was slowly dripping off my face. No matter how hard I concentrated, it appeared as though I could not maintain the smile.

I had considered stitching my face up, or even cutting it into a permanent Glasgow smile, but in the end, I decided that doing so would be in contradiction with 'Serve the village.' I would be hurting myself, an asset of the village, for no gain for the village.

How could I best apply Shisui-sama's word to everyday existence? That was a question that I pondered for the two days that I was in the cell. I found a multitude of ways to do so.

One of the most important ones was to train, become stronger.

I need to be strong to serve the village.

I need to be strong to save my comrades.

I need to be strong to _eliminate all threats to the village._

 _I love you, Shisui-sama._

* * *

"Kurenai-sensei!" My smile is no longer the perfect, fake thing that I wore before, but rather, the absolutely genuine thing. Truthful is better than perfect.

In some cases.

"... Kyouki?" Kurenai appeared to mildly disturbed, as well as slightly shocked.

My actual smile is woefully bland and a tad on the creepy side. Whether it was like that originally, or it became that way after two consecutive days of trying to smile as much as possible is unknown.

But it is genuine.

"Kurenai-sensei, I was thinking that, with only a week left until the Chunin Exams, we could mostly focus on refining my skills, rather than building new ones. Unless you have something else in mind?"

Kurenai, not being a trained kunoichi for nothing, almost immediately snapped out of her surprise, "Oh, yes. Of course. Well, let's get started, Kyouki."

* * *

I began sparring once more with Indr- no. Sasuke.

Indra was my personal weapon. _Sasuke_ was the weapon of the _village._

I began sparring once more with _Sasuke._

There.

If he was surprised by my new sporadic grins, he didn't show it. He was just as welcoming for his brother as he was before.

How adorable.

There would be little time to have activities like this in the future. With the massacre still looming ahead, it seemed more and more likely that there would be, in reality, _no_ time for this in the future.

With the news of Shisui's 'suicide' reaching the clan, came accusations. The Uchiha clan was pointing fingers at anybody except for the people responsible. The village couldn't disclose such sensitive information either. The involvement of Danzo, a high-ranking and well-respected figure, in Shisui's death would cause an outrage, only exasperating the situation. Not only that, but it would cause _all_ clans, not just the Uchiha, to lose trust in the administration.

Keeping such important information from the clan involved was necessary, then.

Things were escalating much too quickly for my liking.

* * *

I had trained with Kurenai for the past few days, and the Chunin Exams were drawing closer. We would be leaving for them later this morning, actually.

"Tobi," I called out to the empty forest.

I would need him. My plan was to use Tobi's control over Yagura to bring the Mizukage over here. I wasn't sure whether that would help the situation over in Kiri or if it would cause it to grow worse because of the chaos following the loss of the kage.

Either way, it didn't matter. I just needed Yagura.

I planned to use Yagura somehow to deter the massacre. I hadn't finished working through the exact details yet. I would probably run it through the Hokage, although he did give me basically free reign over the mission in his mission briefing months.

Best case scenario, Konoha receives an undeniably powerful weapon. Worst case scenario, we _get rid_ of Yagura.

All I needed was Tobi.

He did not keep me waiting, walking out of the forest almost immediately after I called him. I have no idea how he heard me, just that he did. I activated my Sharingan and looked at him.

Odd, his chakra appears to be… diminishing, somehow.

In fact, there were a few odd details that I hadn't really paid much mind to before. The most prominent of which was the strange white mask that he wore instead of the orange one. They both had pretty much the same design though, with the swirls centering on the right eye.

Although I don't quite remember the outfit that was _fully_ white, just with a cloak draped over it.

I suppose it _is_ earlier now in the series than the massacre, so perhaps he had a costume switch later on. He had several costume switches throughout the series, so I suppose it isn't such a huge deal that his outfit was different.

"Show me you Taijutsu. Run through the kata you've learned."

He was distinctly slower than I remember him being. His movements were slow and sloppy, and there appeared to be a great strain with everything.

I frowned, and realising that I wouldn't get anything useful taijutsu related out of him, I stopped him.

Whatever. It's not like I really needed more taijutsu at this point. I wouldn't be able to use it effectively in the tournament even if I copied it. It wouldn't do to just copy something and then blindly use it later.

I would have to investigate though. Having a faulty minion would be a no-no. I tried to cast a diagnostic jutsu on him, but it came back empty. Made sense, I guess. If he could be figured out by a simple diagnostic jutsu, everyone would've already known who he was.

"Tobi, take off your mask," If I could get some exposed skin, then I could probably cast the jutsu.

Tobi didn't move.

My tone become warning, "Tobi, _take off your mask."_

Tobi remained motionless.

" _Obito,"_ I addressed him by his real name, "That was an _order."_

He was still.

I growled.

"Stay still."

 _That_ at least, Tobi obeyed. I walked forwards and gripped his chin with my hand.. My hand found no purchase on his mask. It was like the mask was part of his body or something.

I frowned.

"Tobi, strip."

Tobi obediently followed my orders. My frown deepened as I saw that his hands were shaking. Whether it was from exhaustion or nervousness, it was hard to tell, even with the Sharingan active.

"Tob-"

 _Crick!_

With the Sharingan, I just _barely_ managed to dodge out of the way of the hand that came out of Tobi's chest. The white outfit that he was wearing appeared to crack open as Tobi forced himself out of it.

Oh.

 _Oh._

Tobi was wearing… the… other Tobi. The white zetsu one. It was that white zetsu that opened up and could be worn as a suit. Obito had worn it after Rin's death while murdering those Kiri-nin, and he had worn it afterwards as well when he was confronting the Ame orphans.

He had eventually taken Tobi off, but this was significantly earlier than when Itachi carried out the massacre in canon, so I guess he hadn't made the switch yet.

Obito was currently trying to kill me, but he had obeyed me during the week, which meant that I had not Kotoamatsukami'd _Obito_ Tobi, but rather _Tobi_ Tobi. Er, the white zetsu Tobi.

I'll just call him Guruguru. It was his nickname in the series anyways.

Guruguru had refused to let Obito get out of him, and controlled him in a similar way that Black Zetsu would eventually control Obito.

Clearly Guruguru's methods of control were weaker than Black Zetsu's, as Obito had broken free.

He had been inside Guruguru for about a week now. He was starving and _extremely_ dehydrated. In my old world, he would have died days ago. It was probably only due to the extra vitality that Hashirama's cells granted him that he survived up until now.

Even when he was so clearly exhausted, Obito was much faster than me. I could barely keep up with a combination of my Mangekyou, Shunshin, and Fujin. I could have simply run away with Shunshin, but I figured that I would just kill off one of the main threats in the world while he was already weakened.

Eying an opening, I lunged for Obito.

Only to pass right through his body.

I watched his lone eye spin wildly in its socket.

 _Shitshitshitshitshit…_

 _Fujin_

I teleported out of the way just in time to avoid Obito's punch. Had he not been very much slowed down from his stay within Guruguru, I would have been hit, and probably at least incapacitated, if not dead. Tired or not, Obito's punches were _hard._

I grabbed a handful of flower seeds and threw them on the ground.

 _Jubokko_

The flowers sprang up, filling the forest floor with an array of colourful plants. I channelled a bit of chakra into my hand, forcing it into the flowers. I watched as the chakra flowed into the flower and began to convert into fire chakra.

I made hasty retreat with a Shunshin just as the clearing lit up in flames. I would have to retrieve my _true_ minion, Guruguru, later. He probably survived the blast. He was pretty durable, if I was remembering correct-

 _Shink!_

And Obito's hand pierced through my stomach.

* * *

 _A/N: Sorry. This one was a bit rushed, and I was kind of stuck on it for a while._


End file.
